And then, when the last pot of boiling water has been upset over the last grandfather's back, and Junior has slid down from your lap as near satisfied as he ever will be, you have ten or fifteen minutes of constructive thinking behind you, which, if practiced every Sunday, will make you President of the company within a few years. XVI OPERA SYNOPSES _Some Sample Outlines of Grand Opera Plots For Home Study._ I DIE MEISTER-GENOSSENSCHAFT SCENE: _The Forests of Germany_. TIME: _Antiquity_. CAST STRUDEL, _God of Rain_ Basso SCHMALZ, _God of Slight Drizzle_ Tenor IMMERGLUeCK, _Goddess of the Six Primary Colors_ Soprano LUDWIG DAS EIWEISS, _the Knight of the Iron Duck_ Baritone THE WOODPECKER Soprano ARGUMENT The basis of "Die Meister-Genossenschaft" is an old legend of Germany which tells how the Whale got his Stomach. ACT I _The Rhine at Low Tide Just Below Weldschnoffen._--Immerglueck has grown weary of always sitting on the same rock with the same fishes swimming by every day, and sends for Schwuel to suggest something to do. Schwuel asks her how she would like to have pass before her all the wonders of the world fashioned by the hand of man. She says, rotten. He then suggests that Ringblattz, son of Pflucht, be made to appear before her and fight a mortal combat with the Iron Duck. This pleases Immerglueck and she summons to her the four dwarfs: Hot Water, Cold Water, Cool, and Cloudy. She bids them bring Ringblattz to her. They refuse, because Pflucht has at one time rescued them from being buried alive by acorns, and, in a rage, Immerglueck strikes them all dead with a thunderbolt. ACT 2 _A Mountain Pass_.--Repenting of her deed, Immerglueck has sought advice of the giants, Offen and Besitz, and they tell her that she must procure the magic zither which confers upon its owner the power to go to sleep while apparently carrying on a conversation. This magic zither has been hidden for three hundred centuries in an old bureau drawer, guarded by the Iron Duck, and, although many have attempted to rescue it, all have died of a strange ailment just as success was within their grasp. But Immerglueck calls to her side Dampfboot, the tinsmith of the gods, and bids him make for her a tarnhelm or invisible cap which will enable her to talk to people without their understanding a word she says. For a dollar and a half extra Dampfboot throws in a magic ring which renders its wearer insensible. Thus armed, Immerglueck starts out for Walhalla, humming to herself. ACT 3