nd hinges at the sides.

Rollo had gone with his father and mother to church in the morning, and
at about one o'clock they returned. Rollo and Jennie remained at home,
after one, for an hour or two, waiting for their uncle George to come.
He had gone away somewhere, and had not yet returned. While thus
waiting, the children sat at the window of their parlor, which they
opened by swinging the two sides of the sash entirely back, so that they
could see out to great advantage. The window opened down quite low; but
there was a strong iron bar passing across from side to side, to keep
them from falling out. The children sat at this window, amusing
themselves with what they could see in the square. The name of the
square was the Place Vendome. There was a very large and lofty column in
the centre of it. This column is very greatly celebrated for its
magnitude and its beauty. It is twelve feet in diameter, and nearly a
hundred and forty feet high. But what is most remarkable is, that the
whole exterior of it, enormous as the mass is, is formed of brass. The
brass was obtained by melting up the cannons which Napoleon took from
his enemies. At the end of one of his campaigns he found that he had
twelve hundred cannons which he had taken from the Russians and
Austrians, with whom he had been at war; and after reflecting for some
time on the question, what he should do with them, he concluded to send
them to Paris, and there to have them made into this enormous column, to
ornament the centre of the Place Vendome.

The column, though made of brass, is not bright upon the outside, but
dark, like bronze, and the surface is ornamented with figures in what
are called bas relief, representing the battles and victories in which
the cannon out of which the column was composed were taken from the
enemy.

Rollo and Jennie, in looking at this column from the window of their
hotel, observed that around the foot of it there was a square space
enclosed by an iron railing, forming a sort of yard. There was a gate in
the front side of this railing. This gate was open; but there were two
soldiers standing by it, with guns in their hands, as if to prevent any
body from going in.

The column itself, as is usual with such columns, did not stand directly
upon the ground, but upon a square pedestal, which was built of massive
blocks of granite, resting on a deep and strong foundation; and as the
column itself was twelve feet in diameter, the pedest