(KING and RUTH hold a pistol to each ear) KING: Have mercy on us! hear us, ere you slaughter! FREDERIC: I do not think I ought to listen to you. Yet, mercy should alloy our stern resentment, And so I will be merciful— say on! TRIO—RUTH, KING, and FREDERIC RUTH: When you had left our pirate fold, We tried to raise our spirits faint, According to our custom old, With quips and quibbles quaint. But all in vain the quips we heard, We lay and sobbed upon the rocks, Until to somebody occurred A startling paradox. FREDERIC: A paradox? KING: (laughing) A paradox! RUTH: A most ingenious paradox! We've quips and quibbles heard in flocks, But none to beat this paradox! A paradox, a paradox, A most ingenious paradox! Ha! ha! ha! ha! Ha! ha! ha! ha! KING: We knew your taste for curious quips, For cranks and contradictions queer; And with the laughter on our lips, We wished you there to hear. We said, "If we could tell it him, How Frederic would the joke enjoy!" And so we've risked both life and limb To tell it to our boy. FREDERIC: (interested). That paradox? That paradox? KING and RUTH: (laughing) That most ingenious paradox! We've quips and quibbles heard in flocks, But none to beat this paradox! A paradox, a paradox, A most ingenious paradox! Ha! ha! ha! ha! Ho! ho! ho! ho! CHANT—KING