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38 BIOGRAPHY.
especially myself, found it very pleasant to prepare the
choicest viauds. Many times in my life have I gratefully
acknowledged my parents’ wise idea, to let us learn thor-
oughly all that belongs to the management of a house
and household. <A wifé, who has learned all this in her
youth, becomes quite independent of her servants’ igno-
rance and will have every thing in her house good, but less
expensive than if she had no experience in these matters.
For two summers the Stockholm cook stayed with us at
Arsta, a couple of months each time.
It was now determined in family council that we should
study the art of musical composition and thorough-bass,
and that I should learn to sing, as I had a good voice.
The Italian language being necessary in singing, we had
studied it several years under the guidance of an Italian
settled in Stockholm, a Signor Cartoni, who had at last
advanced so far in his knowledge of languages, that he
could not speak any language correctly. We studied
thorough-bass under a very eminent musician, Professor
Strurve, formerly a physician, who had given up his prac-
tice in order to occupy himself exclusively with music, and
now we were to try our skill at composition.
Fredrika wrote a theatrical piece in one act, called “The
Poet,” and I composed the music to it. When my teacher
was going to play the overture, he exclaimed, “ What a
very difficult piece! it is really such a muddle I shall never
be able to play it!” He expressed more satisfaction with
my music to a couple of romances, with which I was de-
lighted myself. This masterpiece, “The Poet,” was to be
performed on my father’s birthday, the 2d of April, 1818.
Several of my parents’ friends and acquaintances were in-
vited by my mother to tea. After tea, the company sat
down in the dining-room upon chairs placed in rows; the
doors to one of the drawing-rooms, which had been fitted
up as a theatre, were thrown open, and I was discovered
sitting at the piano playing my exceedingly difficult over-
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