There is hardly a boy or girl in this country who does not know some of the tunes in Pinafore by heart—few, indeed, among our readers who have not heard the opera—and all will be interested in hearing something about the composer of that delightful music.
Arthur Sullivan is a bright-eyed, dark-haired man thirty-seven years of age. When quite a little fellow he was a choir-boy in the chapel of St. James's Palace in London, and at thirteen years he had made such progress in musical studies that he composed an anthem that was sung in the chapel before the Queen. On this occasion, he relates, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, the Bishop of London patted him on the head, and gave him ten shillings. At the age of fourteen, Arthur Sullivan won the Mendelssohn Scholarship in the Royal Academy of Music, being the youngest of those who tried for it, and was sent to Leipsic, in Germany, to study under the most famous musicians of the time.
Strange though it may seem, the name of the composer of Pinafore first became known by a sacred oratorio, called the Prodigal Son. Since that time Mr. Sullivan has written other oratorios, as well as a great many songs that are sung everywhere; and there is hardly a hymn-book that does not contain several hymns by this same great musician. The composer of Pinafore has followed up his success in that opera with two others (also commencing with a P), the Pirates of Penzance and Patience, and it is said that he is already at work upon yet another one.
It may be said that comic operas are very light work for a great musician to devote himself to; but those which Arthur Sullivan has composed are the best of their kind, and the man who makes people glad-hearted does as much good as he who makes them wise.
THE PLEASURES OF NUTTING-TIME.
[MICE AS PETS.]
There is one kind of pets, and a very amusing kind they are too, which every boy can have simply by setting a trap, and no one will object to the snaring of them, or speak of the cruelty of depriving them of their liberty. These pets are little bright-eyed, long-tailed mice, which can be induced to display quite as much affection as any other pet, and which are wonderfully interesting whether at play or at work.