ng, and tears were in his eyes. At last he stuck his
handkerchief in his mouth and bowed down very low, while his whole
frame shook. Some of the worshipers near by looked scandalized,
others shocked, others angry. Buttons felt vexed. At last Dick raised
his face and rolled his eyes toward the organ-loft, and instantly
bowed his head again. Buttons looked up mechanically, following the
direction of Dick's glance. The next instant he too fell forward,
tore his handkerchief out of his pocket, while his whole frame shook
with the most painful convulsion of laughter.

And how dreadful is such a convulsion in a solemn place! In a church,
amid worshipers; perhaps especially amid worshipers of another creed,
for then one is suspected of offering deliberate insult. So it was
here. People near saw the two young men, and darted angry looks at
them.

Now what was it that had so excited two young men, who were by no
means inclined to offer insult to any one, especially in religious
matters?

It was this: As they looked up to the organ-loft they saw a figure
there.

The organ projected from the wall about six feet; on the left side
was the handle worked by the man who blew it, and a space for the
choir. On the right was a small narrow space not more than about
three feet wide, and it was in this space that they saw the figure
which produced such an effect on them.

It was the Senator. He stood there erect, bare-headed of course,
with confusion in his face and vexation and bewilderment. The sight
of him was enough--the astonishing position of the man, in such a
place at such a time. But the Senator was looking eagerly for help.
And he had seen them enter, and all his soul was in his eyes, and all
his eyes were fixed on those two.

As Dick looked up startled and confounded at the sight, the Senator
projected his head as far forward as he dared, frowned, nodded, and
then began working his lips violently as certain deaf and dumb people
do, who converse by such movements, and can understand what words are
said by the shape of the mouth in uttering them. But the effect was
to make the Senator buck like a man who was making grimaces, to
wager, like those in Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame." As such the
apparition was so over-powering that neither Buttons nor Dick dared
to look up for some time. What made it worse, each was conscious that
the other was laughing, so that self-control was all the more
difficult. Worse still, each knew that