 For instance, in "The Pirates of Penzance", Frederick's terms of indenture bind him to the pirates until his twenty-first birthday; the pirates point out that he was born on February 29 (a leap year) and will not have his twenty-first birthday until he is eighty-four, and so compel him to rejoin them.When the hero of the Child ballad "The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward" is forced to trade places with an impostor and swear never to reveal the truth to anyone, he tells his story to a horse while he knows that the heroine is eavesdropping.In the similar fairy tale "The Goose Girl", the princess pours out her story to an iron stove, but not knowing that the king is listening.