l he fight him if it is?' said Betty, with an awe-struck look; then
an expression of relief crossing her face, she said, 'I know; it's a
boy that goes in at the back whenever a person plays. I don't know
what he does, but I've seen him there before.'

'When did you see him?' asked Molly eagerly.

Betty's private adventures never remained secret for long, and she
poured forth a long account of her various visits to the church. Molly
was much impressed, but Douglas's return soon turned her thoughts into
another channel. He looked flushed and dishevelled, and his white
sailor suit was soiled and dusty; but nurse was too busy talking to
notice his appearance, and he joined the others with some importance in
his tone.

'I've made a discovery,' he said; 'how do you think a church organ is
played?'

'Like a piano,' said Molly promptly.

'It isn't, then; you turn a handle like the organs in the street, and a
man or boy does all the work behind.'

The little girls looked sceptical, and Betty said, 'I'm sure you don't,
then, for we can see the person playing.'

'Well, they're only pretending; I've seen the handle myself, and the
boy told me if he didn't pull it up and down the organ wouldn't play.
It must be like a kind of duet, perhaps. I expect he makes all the big
booming notes, and the squeaky notes are made by the person in front.
I've promised him sixpence out of my new half-crown, if he'll let me
play instead of him one day; and he says he will.'

'Nurse won't let you play it on Sundays,' said Molly; 'besides, you
won't be able to do it properly, and if you made a mistake it would be
awful.'

'I shall play it on a week-day, and I'll make the old organ sound, you
see if I don't!'

Directly the children reached home, Betty flew to her dog, who had been
shut up in the garret whilst they had been at church. Prince was
already getting to know his little mistress, and welcomed her back with
short happy barks and a great many licks. And Betty poured out all her
heart's love for him in the shape of caresses and pats and kisses,
whispering in his silken ears many a secret, and hugging him to her
breast with a passionate vehemence which astonished and amused those
who saw her.

'He is my own, my very own,' she kept repeating; 'and I shall never
feel odd no more!'

She did not. It was a new and delightful sensation to be one of a
couple. 'Molly and Douglas, Bobby and Billy, and Prince and I,' she
would say.