H.M.S. "PINAFORE"
sailors were surprised at this culpable neglect of duty and replied:
However could you do it?
Some day no doubt you'll rue it,
Although no creature knew it
So many years ago!
Little Buttercup, not heeding their interruption, concluded her confession thus:
In time each little waif
Forsook his foster-mother,[1]
The well-born babe was Ralph—
Your Captain was the other!!!
Again the crew explained the situation to each other, that there might be no mistake about it:
They left their foster-mother;
The one was Ralph, our brother,
Our Captain was the other,
A many years ago!!!
Here was a pretty kettle of fish! Ralph was, properly speaking, a Captain in the Navy, and Captain Corcoran was only a common sailor!
"Am I really to understand," said Sir Joseph, "that during all these years, each has been occupying the other's position?"
- ↑ That is to say, when their respective parents returned to England and reclaimed them.
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