AMY: Where is the organ, mother? MOTHER: In the top of the windpipe, in the throat. It is really a part of the windpipe itself, and this curious little room has walls at the sides, but no floor. The little trap-door which keeps food from going to the bath room forms the top of the music room. PERCY: How large is it? [Illustration: _Cornet._] MOTHER: It is larger in men than in women, and you can see the front part in a boy’s throat. Sometimes it is called “Adam’s apple.” I once read that perhaps the reason it has this name is because when Adam was eating his apple he was in such a hurry to blame Eve for giving it to him that a quarter stuck in his throat. We know that he laid the blame on Eve for his eating the forbidden fruit, but whether it was apples or some other kind of fruit I do not know, so you need not believe this story. ELMER: But I would like to know what causes all the different sounds which are made by the voice. MOTHER: I will try to make it as plain as I can. Near the top of this room two cords are stretched across from front to back. These cords stretch like India-rubber, so they can be made tight or loose. There is an open space between them, where the air can pass through, but the other space is filled up. Did you ever see the little piece of brass in an organ called a “reed”? [Illustration: _Flute._] HELEN: I saw one when our organ was cleaned. MOTHER: Here is a picture of one. You see it has a little tongue, and when air is blown through the opening in the reed, the tongue vibrates, that is, it goes up and down so fast that you can hardly see it, and this makes the sound. The smaller the tongue, the faster it will vibrate, and the tone will be higher. AMY: But how is it that we can speak and sing low or high? MOTHER: Our lungs are like the bellows of the organ, and the voice cords are like the reeds. When the master of the body wants to speak low, he sends an order to some muscles in the throat to let the cords hang loose. If he wishes a high tone, he tells them to stretch the cords tight. If he would make no sound, the cords hang loosely, and the air passes between them without making any sound. [Illustration: _Organ reed._] [Illustration: _Organ._] ELMER: How strange that, with only two cords, we can make nearly all tones made by the piano, which has so many! MOTHER: That shows how much better God can make anything than men can. Perhaps the violin is more like the voice; for it can make more tones on fewer cords; but, though it can be made to produce very sweet sounds, it can not be compared to a trained voice, which can speak words and make music at the same time. HELEN: I’m glad I can talk and sing.