H.M.S. "PINAFORE"
"My Lord," said he to Sir Joseph, "I shall be quite alone when Josephine marries, and I should like a nice little wife to sew buttons on my shirt and mend my socks."
"By all means," said Sir Joseph. "Can you suggest anybody?"
Corcoran presented blushing Little Buttercup to Sir Joseph, who gave her sixpence on the spot as a wedding present. Little Buttercup was so touched by Sir Joseph's liberality that she burst into tears.
Corcoran, overjoyed, at once broke into song, adapting, on the spur of the moment, the well-known and familiar words with which he used to greet his crew every morning, thus:
I was the Captain of the Pinafore!
And all the crew chorused:
And a right good Captain too!
I commanded of you all,
I'm a member of the crew!
I shall marry with a wife
In my humble rank of life,
And you, my own, are she!
But, wherever I may go,
I shall never be unkind to thee!
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