d immediately,
having fixed the ship's affairs so creditably, falls to bemoaning his
sad and lonesome lot.

He declares that he "cannot live alone," and his cousin Hebe assures
him she will never give up the ship; or rather that she never will
desert him, unless of course she should discover that he, too, was
changed in the cradle. This comforts everybody but the changed
Captain. Ralph has, in the twinkling of an eye, become the Captain of
the good ship _Pinafore_, while the Captain has become Ralph, and
Ralph has taken the Captain's daughter. But while he is looking very
downcast, Buttercup reminds him that she is there, and after regarding
her tenderly for a moment, he decides that he has always loved his
foster mother like a wife, and he says so:

I shall marry with a wife,
In my humble rank of life,
And you, my own, are she.

The crew is delighted. Everybody is happy. But the Captain adds,
rashly:

I must wander to and fro,
But wherever I may go
I shall never be untrue to thee!

Whereupon the crew, which is very punctilious where the truth is
concerned, cries:

"What, never?"

"No, never!" the Captain declares.

"What--never?" they persist.

"Well, hardly ever," the Captain says, qualifying the statement
satisfactorily to his former crew. And now that all the facts and
amenities of life have been duly recognized, the crew and Sir Joseph,
Ralph and the former Captain, Josephine and Buttercup, all unite in
singing frantically that they are an Englishman, for they themselves
have said it, and it's greatly to their credit; and while you are
laughing yourself to death at a great many ridiculous things which
have taken place, the curtain comes down with a rush, and you wish
they would do it again.

VERDI

Giuseppe Verdi, born October 9, 1813, was the composer of twenty-six
operas. His musical history may be divided into three periods, and in
the last he approached Wagner in greatness, and frequently surpassed
him in beauty of idea.

Wagner made both the libretti and the music of his operas, while Verdi
took his opera stories from other authors. Both of these great men
were born in the same year.

Of Verdi's early operas, "Ernani" was probably the best; then he
entered upon the second period of his achievement as a composer, and
the first work that marked the transition was "Rigoletto." The story
was adapted from a drama of Hugo's, "Le Roi S'Amuse," and as the