Doctor Miracle

Setting: The Sheriff's house in a small Old West town.

THE PLOT

The Sheriff is convinced the nightly serenades under his window come from Captain Samuel, the cavalry officer courting his daughter Loretta against his wishes. He's already fired the family's previous cook for smuggling love notes between the two and is expecting a new cook to arrive on the morning train. Loretta, meanwhile, admits to her mother Vivian that she genuinely loves Samuel — though Vivian, having buried two husbands who marched off to war, isn't sold on soldiers as sons-in-law.

The new cook turns out to be Samuel in disguise: a half-deaf, wildly eccentric Frenchman calling himself “Pierre Derriere,” wearing an eye patch and a belt full of kitchen tools. Charmed by Pierre's declarations of loyalty and oblivious to the ruse, the Sheriff hires him on the spot — with strict orders to keep Samuel off the property and keep an eye on Loretta. Pierre's first act as cook is a spectacularly inedible omelette, which sends the Sheriff and Vivian off in search of a real doctor and leaves “Pierre” alone in the house with Loretta.

Alone together, Samuel drops the disguise. Loretta recognizes him, and the two are in each other's arms just as the Sheriff and Vivian return — catching them mid-escape. Furious, the Sheriff threatens a convent for Loretta and a court-martial for Samuel. Before he can act on either, a telegram arrives: it claims Samuel poisoned the Sheriff's omelette in revenge, and that no ordinary doctor can save him now. Terrified, the Sheriff sends for the traveling healer “Doc Miracle” — Samuel, in a new disguise.

After a diagnosis built entirely on egg puns, the Doctor offers his antidote for $100, or, failing that, the Sheriff's blessing to marry Loretta. Told it's the only way to save her father's life, Loretta “reluctantly” agrees, and the Sheriff marries them on the spot, right there in the parlor. Only once the vows are said does Samuel reveal the truth: there was never any poison. The omelette was just that bad.

Furious at being tricked, the Sheriff nearly undoes the whole scheme — until Vivian and Loretta convince him the young couple's love is real. He relents, and the opera ends with the household toasting the “miracle” that brought Loretta and Samuel together.