TUNING THE PINS.
"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.