fishes, although they were made of bronze.

The children looked at the fountains as they walked along, and at length
came to the foot of the obelisk. They stopped a minute or two there, and
looked up to the top of it. It was as tall as a steeple. Rollo was
wondering whether it would be possible in any way to get to the top of
it; and he told Jennie that he did not think that there was any way, for
he did not see any place where any body could stand if they should
succeed in getting there. While they both stood thus gazing upward, they
suddenly heard a well-known voice behind them, saying,--

"Well, children, what do you think of the Obelisk of Luxor?"

They turned round and beheld their uncle George. They were, of course,
very much astonished to see him. He was walking with another young
gentleman, a friend of his from America, whom he had accidentally met
with in Paris. When the children had recovered from the surprise of thus
unexpectedly meeting him, he repeated his question.

"What do you think of the obelisk?"

"I don't believe it is so high," replied Rollo, "as the column in the
Place Vendome."

"No," replied Mr. George, "it is not."

"Nor so large," added Rollo.

"No," said Mr. George.

"And I don't believe that there is any way to get to the top of it,"
added Rollo.

"No," said Mr. George, "there is not. The column in the Place Vendome is
hollow, and has a staircase inside; but this obelisk is solid from top
to bottom, and is formed of one single stone. That is the great wonder
of it."

[Illustration: THE OBELISK.]

"Look up," said Mr. George, "to the top of it. It is as high as a
steeple. See how large it is, too, at the base. Think how enormously
heavy such an immense stone must be. What a work it must have been to
lift it up and stand it on its end! Besides, it does not rest upon the
ground, but upon another monstrous stone, the pedestal of which is
nearly thirty feet high; so that, in setting it up in its place, the
engineers had not only to lift it up on end, but they had to raise the
whole mass, bodily, twenty or thirty feet into the air. I suppose it was
one of the greatest lifts that ever was made.

"There is another thing that is very curious about the obelisk,"
continued Mr. George, "and that is its history. It was not made
originally for this place. It was made in Egypt, thousands and thousands
of years ago, nobody knows how long. There are several others of the
same kind still stand