erect, but each seemed bent on having his own
way.

Their heads varied greatly from an even line, and on the whole they
looked far more like the notes of music which they had been, than like
the orderly row of singing-pins which they aspired to be. They had a
scaly appearance.

My small brother had assumed the management of this curious chorus, and
I was much amused at the manner in which he drilled them. For he coolly
picked up the splendid staff-officer by his head and poked the first
bass with his point, as if to say, "Time--sing!" Whereupon that pin set
up a deep, twanging growl, to express his disapprobation of that method
of drill.

In like manner did my brother treat each of the pins in succession.
Then it appeared that each had a different voice, and was capable of
producing but one sound. Moreover, they had been so arranged that, as
they uttered each one his peculiar note, the sounds followed each other
in such a manner as to produce the lively and patriotic air of "Yankee
Doodle." This was very wonderful and pleasing.

"Well, Johnny," said I, as soon as I could stop laughing, "that's
pretty good. Where did you pick that up?"

"Oh, a feller told me," said he. "'T aint nothing to do. All there is
of it is to get a tune in your head, and then drive a pin down in a
board, and keep a-driving, and trying it till it sounds like the first
note in the tune. Then stick up another for the second note, and so
on."

"How can you raise a pin to a higher note?" said I.

"Hammer her down farther," said he.

"And to make a lower note?" I asked.

"Pull her up a little," said he.

"How do you manage the time?"

"Oh, when you want to go slow, you put the pins a good ways apart; and
when you want to go fast, you plant 'em thicker."

The next day I found that this ridiculous brother of mine had set up a
pin-organ in a circular form. He had made one of those little
whirligigs which spin around when they are held over the register or by
a stove-pipe, and then had connected it by a string with a wheel. This
wheel, as it turned, set an upright shaft in motion, and from this
there projected a stick armed at the end with a pin. This was arranged,
as is shown in the cut, so that when it revolved, the pin in the stick
played upon the pins in the circle, and rattled off the "Mulligan
Guards" at a tremendous pace.

[Illustration: THE PIN-ORGAN.]

Johnny says that he invented the circular arrangement, and that all the
boy