--- a/scripts/plot/plotyy.m
+++ b/scripts/plot/plotyy.m
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@
     else
       error ("plotyy: expecting first argument to be axes handle");
     endif
+    oldh = gca ();
   else
     f = get (0, "currentfigure");
     if (isempty (f))
@@ -93,17 +94,18 @@
     elseif (isempty (ax))
       ax(1) = axes ();
       ax(2) = axes ();
+      ca = ax(2);
     endif
     if (nargin < 2)
       varargin = {};
     endif
+    oldh = ca;
   endif
 
   if (nargin < 4)
     print_usage ();
   endif
 
-  oldh = gca ();
   unwind_protect
     [ax, h1, h2] = __plotyy__ (ax, varargin{:});
   unwind_protect_cleanup
@@ -241,6 +243,15 @@
 %! plotyy (x, 10*sin(2*pi*x), x, cos(2*pi*x))
 %! axis square
 
+%!demo
+%! clf
+%! x = linspace (-1, 1, 201);
+%! subplot (1, 1, 1);
+%! hax = plotyy (x, sin(pi*x), x, cos(pi*x));
+%! ylabel ("Blue and on the Left")
+%! ylabel (hax(2), "Green and on the Right")
+%! xlabel ("xlabel")
+
 function deleteplotyy (h, d, ax2, t2)
   if (ishandle (ax2) && strcmp (get (ax2, "type"), "axes")
       && (isempty (gcbf()) || strcmp (get (gcbf(), "beingdeleted"),"off"))