[Lydia] Maria [Child] ALS to Anna Loring, December 28, 1844

strong characters excite envy and ill-will, and so are
misunderstood and misrepresented. But I did not mean
to preach about this. I meant to tell you something about
Thot and Freia. He invites me to rehearsals, (not Thot,
but Ole Bul) because he knows I am trying to understand
the construction of musical compositions, and to accustom
my ear to the harmony of different parts. One day, when I
had heard him rehearse The Solitude of the Prairie, for
the first time, he came bounding up to the dark corner
of the opera where I sat, and smiling, like a great,
good-natured, gifted boy, as he is, he whispered,
"Is that from Freia's harp?" Before I could answer,
he was off to the orchestra again, and the next minute
I heard him saying, "Repeat that through all the bars.
Diminuendo! Diminuendo!"

A rehearsal is an odd scene. It is very curious to examine
into the mechanical process, by which our pleasures are
made. One man vowed he would not play double-bass,
if another man played the kettle drum. Another would
not sound a note, till it was settled, on the spot, whether
he was to receive extra pay, because another performer
was absent. Such exhibitions of poor human nature make
me ready to cry out, as did the little loafer, on his way to
Texas, with an emigrant colony. He got up at midnight,

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Excuse the miserable writing. I have written nine letters to-day. My hand aches, and my pen
is bad.

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