A CHARADE.

My _first_ is often caught in church,
Is dear to dog and cat,
Oft shuns the couch of kings, to bless
The slave upon his mat;
And like the "willow," in the song,
Is "all around my hat."

My _second_ an exclamation is,
A single, simple sound,
That tells of fear, surprise, or joy,
For friends, or treasures found;
And sometimes holds a world of woe
Within its little round.

My _third's_ a lordly name, a land
For which the Genoese
Went forth upon his god-like quest,
And ploughed through unknown seas,
And gave to Europe old a world
Of golden mysteries.

My _whole_, a mighty conqueror,
Filled earth with his renown;
His life-bark rode on Fortune's flood;
Till the heavens began to frown,
And it struck upon a rock at last,
In storm and night went down.

_Nap-o-leon_

ABOUT SOME SWISS CHILDREN.

THE DRUMMER-BOY.

A scene very similar to those we so often witnessed during the sad days
of our war, occurred one sweet June morning, about sixty years ago, in
a quaint little village in Switzerland, on the borders of France. A
company of recruits were about departing to join a regiment in a
neighboring town, from whence they were to march to Italy, where
Napoleon, then First Consul, was conducting one of his great campaigns.
Around these recruits, all of them young, gathered their friends and
relatives, with tears and embraces and touching words of farewell.

About a young drummer-boy, named Leopold Koerner, gathered a little
group on whose grief few could look without tears. First, around the
lad's neck clung his pretty blue-eyed sister, Madeline; then his
younger brother Heinrich, ever till this day a merry, light-hearted
little fellow. Then came their sturdy old grandmother, trying to put a
brave face on the matter, and winking vigorously to keep back the
tears. Leopold's father had been killed in the great French
Revolution,--his widow had died soon after, "of a decline," it was
said; but doubtless sorrow helped her on toward the great, sweet rest.
The children were left to the sole care of their grandmother. She was
poor and old, but she had a stout, faithful heart,--she was devout and
determined, and battled with want and poverty like a true soldier of
the Lord. She kept the children together, and brought them up "in the
way they should go."

It was for the sake of relieving this noble old friend of s