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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10220-0.txt b/10220-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf56e4f --- /dev/null +++ b/10220-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1831 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10220 *** + +DADDY TAKES US SKATING + +By + +HOWARD R. GARIS + +1914 + + + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A COLD NIGHT + + +"Oh, how red your nose is!" cried little Mabel Blake, one day, as her +brother Hal came running out of the school yard, where he had been +playing with some other boys. Mabel was waiting for him to walk home +with her as he had promised. + +"So's your's red, too, Mab!" Harry said. "It's as red--as red as some +of the crabs we boiled at our seashore cottage this summer." + +"Is my nose red?" asked Mab of some of her girl friends. + +"It surely is!" replied Jennie Bruce. "All our noses are red!" she +went on. "It's the cold that makes 'em so. It's very cold to-day, and +soon it will be winter, with lots of snow and ice! Oh! I just love +winter!" + +"Come on, Hal!" called Mab. "Let's hurry home before it gets any +colder!" + +"Let's run!" suggested Hal. "When you run you get warm, and you don't +mind the cold." + +"What makes us get warm when we run?" his sister inquired, as she took +hold of his hand and raced along beside him. + +"I don't know," Hal answered, "but we'll ask Daddy when we get home. +He can tell us everything." + +"Huh! Not everything!" cried Sammie Jones, one of the nice boys with +whom Hal played, "Your father doesn't know everything." + +"Yes he does, too!" exclaimed Hal. Doesn't he, Mab?" + +"Yep!" answered the little girl, shaking her head from side to side so +fast that you could hardly tell which were her curls and which was her +hair ribbon. + +"Huh! Does your father know what makes a steam engine go?" asked +Sammie. + +"Sure he does!" said Hal. "And he told us about it once, too; didn't +he, Mab?" + +"Yes, he did," the little girl answered. "I know, too. It's hot water +in the boiler that makes it go. The hot water swells up, and turns +into steam, and the steam pushes on the wheels, and that makes the +engine go." + +"And our Daddy knows what makes an automobile go, too," went on Hal. +"He knows everything." + +"Huh! Well, I guess mine does then, too!" spoke Sammie. I'm going to +ask him what--what--makes it lightning!" + +"And then will you tell us?" asked Mab, for she and Hal wanted to know +about everything they saw. + +"Yes, I'll tell you," promised Sammie. "And we'll ask Daddy Blake what +makes us warm inside when we run," went on Hal, "and then we'll tell +you that, Sammie." + +The children ran home from school, and, thought it was cold, for it +was almost winter now, they did not mind it. Their noses got more and +more red, it is true, but they knew when they were in the house, near +the warm fire, the red would all fade out. + +Hal and Mab said good-bye to Sammie, as he turned down his street, +and then the little Blake boy and girl, hand in hand, ran on to their +house. + +As they reached it they saw their mamma and their Aunt Lolly out in +the front yard, bringing in pots of flowers and vines. + +"Quick, children!" called Mamma Blake, "You are just in time! Here, +Hal, you and Mab put down your books" and help us to carry in the +flowers. Take only the small pots, and don't drop them, or get any +dirt on your clothes." + +"Oh, I'm sure something will happen if you let the children carry any +of the flowers!" cried Aunt Lolly, who was a dear, fussy little old +lady. "They'll drop them on their toes, or spill the dirt on the +floor--or something." + +"Oh, I guess not," laughed Mamma Blake. "Anyhow we need help to get +all the plants in before dark. There is going to be a very heavy +frost, and everything will freeze hard to-night. It will be very +cold!" + +"Is that why you are bringing in the plants, mamma?" asked Mab. + +"Yes, so they will not freeze and die," Mrs. Blake answered. "Flowers +freeze very easily." + +The children were glad to help their mother and Aunt Lolly. Roly-Poly, +the fat little white poodle dog, tried to help, too, but he upset more +plants than he carried in, though he did manage to drag one pot to the +steps. + +Besides, Roly-Poly was always running off to look for a clothespin, +or something like that, to bury under the earth, making believe, I +suppose, that it was a bone. + +"The ground will soon be frozen too hard for you to dig in it with +your paws, Roly-Poly," said Mamma Blake, when it was nearly dark, and +all the plants had been brought into the warm kitchen. "Come, now +children," she called. "Wash your hands, and supper will soon be +ready. Then Daddy will be here, and he will shake down the furnace +fire, and make it hot, for it is going to be a very cold night." + +A little later, when supper was almost ready, a step was heard in the +front hall. + +"Oh, here comes Daddy now!" cried Mab, making a rush for the door. + +"Let's ask him what makes the cold," exclaimed Hal, "and why we get +warm inside when we run." Hal was very curious. + +"Ah, here we are!" cried Mr. Blake, with a jolly laugh, as he came in +rubbing his ears. He caught Hal up in one arm, and Mab in the other. + +"Oh, how cold your cheeks are, Daddy!" cried Mab as she kissed him. + +"Yes, it is going to be a frosty night, and freeze," he said. "And if +it freezes enough I will tell you a secret I have been keeping for +some time." + +"Oh Daddy! Another secret!" cried Mab. "Tell us what it is, please!" + +"Wait until we see if it freezes hard enough to-night," replied her +papa. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ICE IN THE BOTTLE + + +Hal and Mab were so excited at hearing their father speak about a new +secret, that they could hardly eat their supper. There were so many +questions they wanted to ask. But they managed to clear their plates, +and then, when Mr. Blake had on his slippers, and had put plenty of +coal on the furnace, Hal climbed up on one knee, and Mab on the other. + +"Now, Daddy, please tell us the secret," begged the little girl. + +"And tell us what makes water freeze, and how it gets cold, and what +makes us warm when we run," added Hal. "Sammie Jones is going to ask +his father what makes it lightning in a thunder storm." + +"My goodness me sakes alive, and some peanut candy!" cried Daddy Blake +with a laugh. "What a lot of questions!" + +"But the secret first, please," begged Mab. + +"Well, let me see if it is going to be cold enough for me to tell +you," said Mr. Blake. "It must be freezing cold, or the secret will be +of no use." + +Daddy Blake went to the door, outside of which hung an instrument +called a thermometer. I guess you have seen them often enough. A +thermometer is a glass tube, fastened to a piece of wood or perhaps +tin, and inside is a thin, shiny column. This column is mercury, or +quicksilver. Some thermometers have, instead of mercury, alcohol, +colored red, so it can easily be seen. + +You see mercury, or alcohol, will not freeze, except in much colder +weather than you ever have where you live, unless you live at the +North Pole. Up there it gets so cold that sometimes alcohol will +became as thick as molasses, and then it is not of any use in a +thermometer. But mercury will not freeze, even at the North Pole. + +The word thermometer means something by which heat can be measured. +"Thermos" is a Greek word, meaning heat, and "Meter" means to measure. +Though of course a thermometer will measure cold as well as heat. + +"Is it cold enough?" asked Hal, as Daddy Blake came back from looking +at the thermometer. + +"Not quite," his father answered. "But the mercury is going down the +tube." + +"What makes it go down?" asked Mab. + +"Well, let me think a minute, and I'll see if I can make it simple +enough so you can understand," said Daddy Blake. + +Those of you who have read the other "Daddy" books know how many +things Mr. Blake told his children, and what good times Hal and Mab +had with him. He was always taking them somewhere, and often one or +the other of the children would call out: + +"Oh, Daddy is going to take us walking!" + +Sometimes perhaps it might not be for a walk. It might be for a trip +in the steam cars. But, wherever it was, Hal and Mab were always ready +to go with their father. + +In the first book I told you how Daddy Blake took Hal and Mab camping. +They went to live in the woods in a white tent and had lots of fun. +Once they were frightened in the night, but it was only because +Roly-Poly, their poodle dog-- + +But there, I'm not going to spoil it by telling you, when you might +want to read the book for yourself. + +In the second volume, called "Daddy Takes Us Fishing," I made up a +story about how Hal and Mab went to the seashore cottage, and learned +to catch different kinds of fish; even the queer, pinching crabs, that +turned red when you boiled them. + +Once Mab fell overboard, and the children nearly drifted out to sea, +but they got safely back. After that they went to the big animal show. +And in the book "Daddy Takes Us to the Circus," I told you how Hal and +Mab were accidentally taken away in one of the circus wagons, and how +they traveled all night. And the next day they rode on the elephant's +back, and also on a camel's and they went in the big parade. Oh! it +was just wonderful the adventures they had! + +Hal and Mab lived with their papa and mamma, and Aunt Lolly, in a fine +house in the city. But they often went to the country and to other +places where they had good times. In the family was also Uncle +Pennywait. That wasn't his real name, but the children called him that +because he so often said: + +"Wait a minute and I'll give you a penny." + +Hal and Mab used to buy lollypops with the pennies their uncle gave +them. And then--Oh, yes, I mustn't forget Roly-Poly, the funny, fat, +poodle dog who was always hiding things in holes in the ground, +thinking they were bones, I guess. Sometimes he would even hide Aunt +Lolly's spectacles and she would have the hardest work finding them. +Oh, such hard work! + +"Well, Daddy," asked Mab, after Mr. Blake had sat silent for some +time, "have you thought of a way to tell us what makes the shiny stuff +in the--in the--in the--Oh! I can't say that big word!" she finished +with a sigh. + +"The mercury in the thermometer!" laughed Daddy Blake. "You want to +know what makes it go down? Well, it's the cold. You see cold makes +anything get smaller and shrink, and heat makes things swell up, and +get larger. That's why the steam from hot water swells up and makes +the engine go, and pull the cars. + +"And in hot weather the mercury swells, puffs itself out and creeps +up inside the little glass tube. In winter the mercury gets cold, and +shrinks down, just as it is doing to-night." + +"But will it get cold enough so you can tell us the secret?" Hal +wanted to know, most anxiously. + +"Perhaps," said his father. "We will try it and see. I will fill a +bottle with water, and we will set it out on the back porch to freeze. +If it freezes by morning I will know that I can tell you the secret." + +"Oh, do we have to wait until morning?" cried Mab, in disappointed +tones. + +"That won't be long," laughed her father. "You can hardly keep your +eyes open now. I guess the sand man has been here. Go to bed, and it +will soon be morning. Then, if there is ice in the bottle, I'll tell +you the secret." + +Daddy Blake took a bottle, and filled it with water. He put the cork +in tightly, and then twisted some wires over the top. + +"What are the wires for?" asked Hal. + +"So the ice, that I think will freeze inside the bottle, will not push +out the cork," explained Daddy Blake. "Now off to bed with you!" + +You may be sure Hal and Mab did not want to go to bed, even if they +were sleepy. They wanted to stay up and watch the water in the bottle +freeze. But Mamma Blake soon had them tucked snugly under the covers. + +Then Daddy Blake fixed the furnace fire for the night, as it was +getting colder and colder. Next he opened a package he had brought +home with him. Something inside jingled and clanked, and shone in the +lamplight as brightly as silver. + +"What have you there?" asked Aunt Lolly. + +"That's the children's secret," answered Daddy Blake, as he wrapped +the package up again. + +Hal was up first in the morning, but Mab soon followed him. + +"Daddy, where is the bottle?" called Hal. + +"May we get it?" asked Mab. + +"Oh, it is much too cold for you to go out until you are warmly +dressed!" cried Daddy. "I'll bring the bottle in so you can see it." + +He went out on the porch in his bath robe and slippers, and quickly +brought in the bottle of water he had set out the night before. + +"Oh, look!" cried Hal. + +For the bottle was broken into several pieces, and standing up on the +board on which it had been set, was a solid, clear piece of ice, just +the shape of the glass bottle itself. + +"Oh, somebody broke our bottle!" cried Mab. "Now we can't hear the +secret!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE NEW SKATES + + +Daddy Blake laughed when Mab said that. + +"Yes, the bottle is broken," he said, "but it was the ice that broke +it." + +"How could it?" Hal wanted to know. + +"I told you last night," said Daddy Blake, when the children were at +breakfast table a little later, "that heat made things get larger, and +that cold made them get smaller. That was true, but sometimes, as you +see now, freezing cold makes water get larger. That is when it is cold +enough to make ice. + +"As long as there was only water in the bottle it was all right, the +glass was not broken. But in the night it got colder and colder. All +the warmth was drawn off into the cold air. Then the water froze, and +swelled up. The ice tried to push the cork out of the bottle, just as +you would try to push up the lid of a box if you were shut up inside +one." + +"I guess the wires over the cork wouldn't let the ice push it out," +spoke Hal. + +"That's it," Daddy Blake answered. "And so, as the ice could not lift +out the cork, it swelled to the sides, instead of to the top, and +pushing out as hard as it could, it broke the bottle. The glass fell +away, and left a little statue of ice, just the shape of the bottle, +standing in its place. + +"How wonderful!" cried Mab, her blue eyes open wide. + +"Yes, the freezing of ice is very wonderful," Daddy Blake said, as he +passed Hal his third slice of bread and jam. "If the cracks in a great +rock became filled with water, and the water froze, the swelling of +the ice would split the great, strong stone. + +"There is scarcely anything that can stand against the swelling of +freezing ice. If you filled a big, hollow cannon ball with water, and +let it freeze, the ice would burst the iron." + +"It burst our milk bottle once, I know," said Aunt Lolly. + +"Yes," spoke Daddy Blake. "That is why, on cold mornings, the milkman +raises the tin top on the bottle. That gives the frozen milk a chance +to swell up out of the top, and saves the bottle from cracking." + +"One morning last winter," said Mamma Blake, "when we had milk bottles +with the pasteboard tops, the milk froze and there was a round bit of +frozen milk sticking up out of the bottle, with the round pasteboard +cover on top, like a hat." + +"And that's what saved the bottle from breaking," said Daddy Blake, +"If I had not wired down the cork of our bottle the water would have +pushed itself up, after it was frozen, and would have stuck out of the +bottle neck, like a round icicle." + +"But what about our secret?" asked Hal. "Is it cold enough for you to +tell us about it?" + +"I think so," answered Daddy Blake, with a queer little twinkle in his +eyes. "As long as the water in the bottle was frozen, the pond will +soon be covered with ice," he said. "And we need ice to make use of +the secret." + +"Oh, I just wonder what it is?" cried Mab, clapping her hands. + +"I think I can guess," spoke Hal. + +Daddy Blake went out in the hall, and came back with two paper +bundles. He placed one at Mab's place, and gave the other to Hal. + +"I want something, so I can cut the string!" Hal cried, and he laid +his package down on the floor, while he searched through his pockets +for his knife. + +Just then Roly-Poly came into the breakfast room, barking. He saw +Hal's package on the floor, and, thinking, I suppose, that it must be +meant for him to play with, the little poodle dog at once began to +drag it away. Though, as the ground was frozen, I don't know how he +was going to bury it, if that was what he intended to do. + +"Hi there, Roly!" cried Hal. "Come back with that, if you please, +sir!" + +"Bow-wow!" barked the little poodle dog, and I suppose he was saying: + +"Oh, can't I have it a little while?" + +By this time Mab had her package open. + +"Oh!" she cried. "It's skates! Ice skates! Oh, I've always wanted a +pair!" + +"Ha! That's what I thought they were, when Daddy talked so much about +ice and freezing," said Hal. + +He had managed, in the meanwhile, to get his bundle away from +Roly-Poly. + +Opening it, Hal found in the package a pair of shining ice skates, +just like those Mab was trying on her shoes. + +"Oh, thank you, Daddy!" Hal cried. + +"And I thank you, too!" added Mab. I'd get up and kiss you, only my +mouth is all jam. I'll kiss you twice as soon as I've washed." + +"That will do," laughed her father. "Do you like your skates, +children?" + +"Oh, do we?" they cried, and by the way they said it you could easily +tell that they did. + +"And Daddy's going to take us skating; aren't you?" asked Hal as he +measured his skates on his shoes to see if they would fit. They did. +Oh! Daddy Blake knew just how to buy things to have them right, I tell +you. + +"Yes, I'll take you skating, and show you how to stand up on the +ice--that is as soon as it is thick enough on the pond to make it +safe, and hold us up," promised the children's father. + +Just then Mamma Blake came running up from down the cellar. She was +much excited. + +"Oh, come quickly!" she called to her husband. "Something has happened +to the stationary wash-tubs. The water is spurting all over the +cellar. Oh, do hurry!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FROZEN POND + + +Daddy Blake hurried down cellar. Hal and Mab carefully putting away +their new skates, followed their father. Roly-Poly, the little fat +poodle dog looked around to see if he could find anything to drag +off and hide, but, seeing nothing, he went down cellar also, barking +loudly at each step. + +"Hal! Mab!" called Aunt Lolly. "Come back here, dears!" + +"We want to see what has happened!" answered Hal. + +"Oh, you'll get hurt! I'm sure you will!" exclaimed the dear, little, +fussy old lady aunt. + +"No, it isn't anything serious!" called Daddy Blake when he saw what +had happened. "Only one of the water pipes has burst. We must send for +the plumber. Wait, children, until I shut off the water, and then you +can come down. It is like a shower-bath now." + +Daddy Blake found the faucet, by which he could shut off the water at +the stationary wash-tubs, and then, when it had stopped spurting from +the burst pipe, he called to Hal and Mab: + +"Now you may come and see how strong ice is. Not only does it burst +glass bottles, but it will even crack an iron pipe." + +"Just like it cracked a cannon ball!" cried Hal, and he was in such a +hurry to get down the cellar steps that he jumped two at a time. + +That might have been all right, only Roly-Poly, the little fat poodle +dog, did the same thing. He became tangled up in Hal's legs, and, +a moment later, the little boy and the dog were rolling toward the +bottom of the steps, over and over just like a pumpkin. + +"Oh!" cried Mab, holding fast to the handrail, a little frightened. + +"Oh my!" exclaimed Mamma Blake at the top of the cellar steps. "What +has happened?" + +"Oh my goodness me sakes alive and some orange pudding!" exclaimed +Aunt Lolly. "I just knew _something_ would happen!" + +But nothing much did, after all, for Daddy Blake, as soon as he heard +Hal falling, ran to the foot of the stairs, and there he caught his +little boy before Hal had bounced down many steps. + +"There you are!" cried Daddy Blake, as he set Hal upright on his feet. +"Not hurt a bit; are you?" + +"N-n-n-n-no!" stammered Hal, as he caught his breath, which had almost +gotten away from him. "I'm not hurt. Is Roly-Poly?" + +Roly was whirling about, barking and trying to catch his tail, so I +guess he was not much hurt. The truth was that both Hal and Roly were +so fat and plump, that falling down a few cellar steps did not hurt +them in the least. + +"Well, now we'll look at the burst water pipe," said Daddy Blake, +when the excitement was over. The water had stopped spurting out now, +though there was quite a puddle of it on the cellar floor by the tubs. + +Mr. Blake lifted Hal across this, and showed him where there was a big +crack in the water pipe. Then he showed Mab, also lifting her across +the little pond in the cellar. + +"You see the pipe was full of water," Mr. Blake explained, "and in the +night it got so cold down cellar that the water froze, just as it did +in the glass bottle out on the back porch. + +"Then the ice swelled up, and it was so strong that it burst the +strong iron pipe, splitting it right down the side." + +"But why didn't the water spurt out when I came down cellar earlier +this morning?" asked Mamma Blake. "It did not leak then." + +"I suppose it was still frozen," answered her husband. "But when the +furnace fire became hotter it melted the ice in the pipe and that let +the water spurt out. But the plumber will soon fix it." + +Hal and Mab watched the plumber, to whom their papa telephoned. He had +to take out the broken pipe, and put in a new piece. Afterward Hal +looked at the pipe that had been split by the ice. + +"Why it's just as if gun-powder blew it up," he said, for once he had +seen a toy cannon that had burst on Fourth of July, from having too +much powder in it. + +"Yes, freezing ice is just as strong as gunpowder, only it works more +slowly," said Daddy Blake with a smile. "Powder goes off with a puff, +a flash and a roar, but ice freezes slowly." + +"Oh, but when are we going skating?" asked Mab, as she and her brother +started for school, a little later that morning. + +"As soon as I can find a frozen pond," said Daddy Blake with a smile. + +Well wrapped up, and wearing warm gloves, Hal and Mab went to their +lessons. It was so cold that wintry day, though there was no snow, +that they ran instead of walking. Running made them warm. + +"Is my nose red?" asked Mab, when they were near the school. + +"Oh, it's awful red!" cried Hal. "Is mine?" + +"As red as a boiled lobster!" laughed Mab. "Let's run faster!" + +So they ran, and soon they were in a glow of warmth. + +"Oh!" cried Mab, as she and her brother entered the school-yard, "we +forgot to ask Daddy why we get warm when we run." + +When the two children reached their house, after lessons were over for +the day, they found their father waiting for them. He had his skates +over his shoulder, dangling from a strap, and he had Hal's and Mab's +in his hand. + +"Come, we are going to look for the frozen pond!" he said. + +Then Hal and Mab forgot all about asking why they became warm when +they ran. They cried out joyfully: + +"Oh, Daddy is going to take us skating! Daddy is going to take us +skating!" + +Across the fields they went, and in a little while they came to a +place where was a pond, in which they used to fish during the summer. +But now as they looked down on the water, from the top of a small +hill, they saw that the pond was all frozen over. A sheet of ice +covered it from edge to edge. + +"Oh, now we can skate!" cried Hal in delight, "Now we can try our new +skates." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +POOR ROLY-POLY + + +"Come on!" cried Mab, as she started to run down the slope of the hill +toward the frozen pond. "Come on, Hal!" + +"Hold on!" called Daddy Blake. "Wait a minute, Mab! Don't go on the +ice yet!" + +Mab stopped at once. So did Hal, who had just begun to run. You see +the children had gotten into the habit of stopping when their uncle +called: "Wait a minute and I'll give you a penny," so it was not hard +for them to do so when their father called. + +"Why can't I go on the ice?" asked Mab, + +"I must first see how thick it is," answered Daddy Blake. + +"What difference does that make?" Hal wanted to know. + +"Oh, a whole lot," said Mr. Blake. "If the ice is too thin you will +break through, and go into the cold water. We must be very careful, I +will see if it is thick enough." + +Mab waited for her father and Hal to come to where she was standing. +Roly-Poly did not wait, however. Down he rushed to the frozen pond. + +"Oh, come back! Come back!" cried Mab. "You'll go through the ice, +Roly!" + +But Roly-Poly paid no attention. Out on the slippery ice he ran, +and then he turned around and, looking at Daddy Blake and the two +children, he barked as loudly as he could. + +Roly-Poly was a queer dog that way. Sometimes he would mind Mab, and +then, again, he would not. + +"I guess the ice is thick enough to hold up Roly," said Mr. Blake. "It +doesn't need to be very strong for that, as Roly is so little." + +"How thick must it be to hold us up?" Hal wanted to know. + +"Well, on a small pond, ice an inch thick might hold up a little boy +or girl," explained Mr. Blake. "But not very many children at a time. +On a large pond the ice should be from six to eight inches thick to +hold up a crowd of skaters." + +"Oh, does ice ever get as thick as that?" asked Hal. + +"Oh, yes, and much thicker. On big lakes it gets over two feet thick +in cold weather," Mr. Blake said. "Then it will hold up a whole +regiment of soldiers, and cannon too. Ice is very strong when once it +is well frozen. But always be sure it is thick enough before going +on." + +"How are you going to tell?" asked Mab. + +"By cutting a little hole through the ice," her father told her. "You +can look at the edges of the hole and tell how thick the ice is. We +will try it and see." + +With the big blade of his knife, Mr. Blake cut and chipped a hole in +the ice, a little way from shore. Hal and Mab stayed on the ground +watching their father, but Roly-Poly ran all about, barking as hard as +he could. + +"I guess he is looking for something to bury in a hole," spoke Hal. +But Roly could not dig in the hard ice, and the ground was also frozen +too solidly for him to scratch. So all the little poodle dog could do +was to bark. + +"There we are!" cried Mr. Blake, after a bit. "See, children, the ice +is more than six inches thick. It will be safe for us to skate on!" + +Hal and Mab ran to look into the little hole their father had cut in +the ice. It went down for more than half a foot, or six inches, like a +well you dig in the sand at the seashore. But no water showed in the +bottom of this hole in the ice. + +"The ice is good and thick," said Mr. Blake. "It will hold up all the +skaters that will come on this pond." + +But the children and their Daddy were the only ones there now. Mr. +Blake showed Hal and Mab how to put on their skates. He made the +straps tight for them, and then put on his own. + +"Now we will see how well you can skate," said Mr. Blake. + +"I can!" cried Hal. "I've watched the big boys do it. I can skate!" + +"It's just like roller skating," said Mab, "and I can do that, I +know." + +"Well, you may find it a little different from roller skating, Mab," +her papa answered with a laugh. + +"Here I go!" cried Hal. He struck out on the ice, first with one foot, +and then with the other, as he had been used to doing on his roller +skates. And then something happened. + +Either Hal's feet slid out from under him, or else the whole frozen +surface of the pond tilted up, and struck him on the head. He was not +quite sure which it was, but it felt, he said afterward, as though the +ice flew up and struck him. + +"Oh, be careful!" cried Daddy Blake, as he saw Hal fall. But it was +too late to warn the little boy then. + +"Oh, he's hurt!" exclaimed Mab with a little sob, as she saw that her +brother did not get up. + +Daddy Blake skated over to Hal, but there was no need of his help. For +Hal got up himself, only he was very careful about it. He did not try +to skate any more. He did not want to slip and fall. + +"Are you hurt?" asked Mr. Blake. + +"N-n-no; I guess not," Hal answered slowly. "The ice is sort of soft, +I guess." + +"No quite as soft as snow, however," laughed Daddy Blake. "Now you had +better not try to skate until I take hold of your hand. I will hold +you up. Come, Mab, well take hold of hands and so help each other to +stand up." + +Roly-Poly was rushing here and there, filled with excitement, and he +was barking all the while. He was having fun too. + +"Now strike out slowly and carefully," directed Daddy Blake to the +children. "First lean forward, with your weight on the left foot and +skate, and then do the same with your right. Glide your feet out in a +curve," and he showed them how to do it, keeping hold of their hands, +Mab on one side and Hal on the other. In this way they did not fall +down. + +Slowly over the ice they went. + +"Oh, we are skating!" cried Mab, in delight. + +"Isn't it fun!" shouted Hal. + +"At least you are beginning to skate," said Mr. Blake. + +Roly-Poly kept prancing around in front, running here and there, and +barking louder than ever. + +"Don't get in our way, Roly!" called Mr. Blake with a laugh, "or we +might skate right over you!" + +"Bow-wow!" barked the little poodle dog. And I suppose that was his +way of saying: + +"No, I won't! I'll be good." + +Hal and Mab were beginning to understand the first simple rules of +skating. It was not as easy as they had thought--nor was it the same +as roller skating. The ice was so slippery. + +"Oh, look at Roly!" cried Hal, when they had stopped for a rest. "He's +skating, too." + +A boy who had no skates had come down to the frozen pond, and, seeing +the poodle dog, and knowing him to be Hal's pet, this boy wanted to +have some fun. He would throw a stick on the ice, sliding it along, +and Roly would race after it. He would go so fast, Roly would, that he +could not stop when he reached the stick, and along he would slide, +almost as if he were skating. + +Just as Hal called to Mab to look, Roly cook a long run and a slide. +Then, all of a sudden, there was a cracking sound in the ice. A hole +seemed to open, close to where the poodle dog was, and, a moment +later, Roly-Poly went down, out of sight, into the cold, black water. + +"Poor Roly-Poly!" cried Mab. "He's drowned!" + +Roly-Poly had gone under the ice. Hal and Mab were ready to cry. But +listen. This is a secret. Roly-Poly was not drowned! A wonderful thing +happened to him, but I can not tell you about it until the end of the +book. And mind, you're not to turn over the pages to find out, either. +That would not be fair. Just wait, and I'll tell you when the times +comes. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +FISHING THROUGH THE ICE + + +"Come on, Mab," cried Hal, to his sister. "We've got to get him out! +We've got to save Roly-Poly!" + +Letting go his father's hand, Hal started to skate toward the place +where the little poodle dog had last been seen. + +"Wait--don't go," said Mr. Blake quickly, but there was no need. For, +as soon as Hal let go of his Daddy's hands, his feet, on which were +still the slippery skates, slid out from under him, and down he went +again. + +"Oh dear!" cried Mab. "Everything is happening! Can't we save Roly, +Daddy?" + +"Yes, perhaps," he said slowly. "But we must not go too near. Roly +went down through an air hole in the ice. The ice is thin near there. +It might break with us. I will go up carefully and look." + +Telling Hal and Mab to stay together, in a spot where he knew the +ice was thick, Mr. Blake skated slowly toward the place where poor +Roly-Poly had gone under. As he came near the ice began to crack +again. Mr. Blake skated back. + +"It would be dangerous to go on," he said. "I am sorry for Roly-Poly, +but it would not be wise for us to risk our lives for him. It would +not be right, however much you love him." + +"Oh, we do love him so much!" sobbed Mab. + +"I'll get you another dog," said Mr. Blake, and then he had to blow +his nose very hard. Maybe he was crying too, for all I know. Mind, I'm +not saying for sure. + +"No other dog will be like Roly-Poly," said Hal, who was trying not to +cry. + +"I'm awful sorry I threw the sticks for him to chase after," said +Charlie Anderson, the boy who had been playing with the poodle dog +while Hal and Mab were learning to skate. + +"Oh, it wasn't your fault," said Daddy Blake. "Poor Roly! I will see +if I can break the ice around the hole. Maybe he is caught fast, and +I can loosen the ice so he can get out." Daddy Blake took off his +skates, and then, with a long piece of fence rail, while he stood on +the bank, the children's papa broke the ice around the edges of the +air hole. But no Roly-Poly could be seen. + +"Oh dear" cried Mab. "He is gone forever!" + +"Yes," spoke Hal, quietly, and then he put his arms around his little +sister. + +But don't you feel badly, children. We know something Hal and Mab do +not know, and we'll keep it a secret from them until it is time for +the surprise. + +The two Blake children were so sorry their doggie had been lost +through the ice, that their father thought it best to take them home. + +"We will have another skating lesson to-morrow," he said. "But this +shows you how dangerous air holes are." + +"What is an air hole in the ice, Daddy?" asked Hal. + +"I'll tell you," said Mr. Blake. This interested Mab, and she stopped +crying. Besides, if you cry when it's cold, the tears may freeze on +your cheeks, like little pearls, and fall off." + +"An air hole," said Mr. Blake, as he walked on home with the children, +"is a place where the ice has not frozen solidly. Sometimes it may be +because there is a warm spring in that part of the pond, or a spring +that bubbles up, and keeps the water moving. And you know moving or +running water will not freeze, except in very, very cold weather. + +"But always be careful of air holes, for the ice around them is easily +broken, and you might go through." + +"Poor Roly-Poly!" sighed Mab. "I wish he had been careful." + +"So do I," spoke Hal. + +"How would you like to go fishing through the ice?" asked Daddy Blake, +so the children would have something new to think about, and not feel +sorry about Roly. + +"Fishing through the ice?" cried Hal. "How can we do that? Aren't the +fish frozen in the winter?" + +"I saw some frozen ones down at the fish store," Mab said. + +"Well, I don't mean that kind," laughed Daddy Blake. "There are live +fish in the waters of the lakes, rivers and ponds, down under the ice. +You can not catch all kinds of fish through the ice in winter, but you +may some sorts--pickeral for instance." + +"Oh, Daddy, and will you take us fishing?" asked Mab. + +"I think I will, some day soon, if the cold keeps up," he said. + +And, surely enough he did. + +The weather was still very cold, and the ice froze harder and thicker. +Several times Daddy Blake took the children down to the pond, and +taught them about skating. They were doing very well. + +Then, one Saturday, when there was no school, Daddy Blake called out: + +"Now we'll go fishing through the ice. We'll go over to the big lake, +so wrap up well, as it is quite cold. We'll take along some lunch, and +we'll build a fire on the shore and make hot chocolate." + +"Hurray!" cried Hal. + +"Oh, how lovely!" exclaimed Mab. + +Well wrapped up, and carrying with them their fishing things, as well +as lunch, while Mr. Blake had a small axe, the little party set off +for a large lake, about two miles away. + +When they reached it, Hal wondered how they could ever get any fish, +as the water was covered with a thick sheet of ice. But Daddy Blake +chopped several holes in the frozen surface, so Hal and Mab could see +the dark water underneath. The holes however, were not large enough +for the children to fall through. + +"Now we'll fish through the ice!" said Daddy Blake. + +"Oh, I see how it's done!" exclaimed Hal with a laugh. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +LEARNING TO SKATE + + +"Now we'll bait our hooks," said Mr. Blake, when he had put the lunch, +which they had brought along, safely away in a sheltered place. "And +after that we will have a little skate practice to get warmed up, for +it is colder than I thought." + +"But if we bait our hooks, and leave them in the water, won't the fish +run away with our lines if we are not here to watch them?" asked Mab. + +"We'll fix the lines so the fish that bite will ring a little bell, to +tell us to come and take them off the hook!" replied Daddy Blake with +a laugh. + +"Oh, now I know you're fooling us!" said Hal. + +"No, really I am not," replied his father, but Mr. Blake could not +keep the funny twinkle out of his eyes, and Hal was sure there was +some joke. + +From a small satchel, in which he had put the things for fishing, Mr. +Blake took several pieces of wire. On the ends were some bits of +red cloth, and also, on each wire, a little brass bell, that went +"tinkle-tinkle." + +"Oh, they are really bells!" cried Mab, as she heard them jingle. + +"Of course they are" said her father. "Now I'll tell you what we'll +do. We'll bait our hook, and lower it into the water through a hole in +the ice. Then, close to the hole, we'll fasten one of these pieces of +wire each one of which has, on the upper end, a bell and a bit of red +cloth. + +"When the wires are stuck in the ice we'll fasten our lines to them, +and then, when the fish, down in the cold water, pulls on the baited +hook he will make the piece of red cloth flutter, and he will also +ring the bell." + +"Oh, now I see!" cried Hal. "And if we are off skating we can look +over here, and if we see the red rag fluttering we'll know we have a +bite, and can come and pull up the fish." + +"That's it," said Daddy Blake, smiling. + +"And if we don't happen to see the red rag fluttering, we will hear +the bell ring," added Mab, clapping her hands. "How nice it is to fish +this way!" + +The hooks were soon baited, and lowered into the water through the +holes in the ice Then the other end of each fish line was made fast +to a wire sticking up, with its bit of red rag, and the little brass +bell. + +"Now we'll go skating," said Daddy Blake. "The fish themselves will +tell us when they are caught. Come along." + +Hal and Mab had, by this time, learned to put on their own skates, +though of course Hal helped his sister with the straps. + +"You must begin to learn to skate by yourselves," said Daddy Blake, +after he had held the hands of the children for a time. "Don't be +afraid, strike out for yourselves." + +"But s'pose we fall?" asked Mab. + +"That won't hurt you very much," her father said. "Be careful, of +course, not to double your legs up under you, and when you tumble +don't hit your head on your own skates, or any one's else. But when +you feel that you are going to fall, just let yourself go naturally. +If you strain, and try not to fall, you may sprain and hurt yourself +more than if you fall easily. Now strike out!" + +Hal and Mab tried it. At first they were timid, and only took little +strokes, but, after a while, they grew bolder, and did very well. They +were really learning to skate. + +"Oh, look!" suddenly cried Hal. "My red rag is bobbing; I must have a +bite!" + +He started in such a hurry toward the ice-hole where his line was set +that he fell down. But he did not mind that, and was soon up again. +However, Mab, who did not stumble, teached her line first. + +"Oh dear! I haven't a bite!" she sighed, for her bell was not +jingling. + +"But I have!" cried Hal, pulling his line in. "A big one, too!" + +"I'll help you," said Daddy Blake, as he skated up to his little son, +and when Daddy had felt of the tugging line he remarked: + +"Yes, that is a large fish! Up he comes!" And he pulled up Hal's fish. + +Just as the big, flopping pickerel was hauled out on the ice, Mab +cried: + +"My bell is tinkling! My bell is tinkling! I've got a fish, too!" And +indeed her piece of wire was moving to and fro where it was stuck up +in the ice, and the bell was jingling merrily. + +"Wait, Mab, I'll help you!" called Daddy Blake, and, leaving Hal to +take care of his own fish, the children's papa went to pull in Mab's +catch. + +Her fish was not quite as large as was Hal's, but it was a very nice +one. Then Mr. Blake called out: + +"Oh ho! Now there's a bite on my line!" + +His bell jingled quite loudly, and when the string was pulled up +through the hole there was a fine, large pickerel on the hook. The +fish were placed in a basket to be taken home, after having been +mercifully put out of pain by a blow on the head. Then the hooks were +baited again. + +In a little while each one had caught another fish and then Daddy +Blake said: + +"Now we have all the fish we can use, so there is no need of catching +any more. We will practice our skating a little longer, and then go +home. For I am sure you children must be cold." + +"Oh, but aren't we going to eat the lunch we brought, before we go +home?" cried Hal. + +"I was just wondering if you would think of that!" laughed Daddy +Blake. "Yes, we will eat lunch as soon as we get a little warm by +skating around, or by running." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE SKATING RACE + + +Daddy Blake and the two children glided to and fro over the ice of the +frozen lake on their sharp steel skates. Soon all their cheeks were +red and rosy, and they felt as warm inside as though they had taken +some hot chocolate at the corner drug store. + +"Daddy," asked Hal, "what makes you warm when you run fast, or skate?" + +"It is because your heart pumps so much more blood up inside your +body," explained Daddy Blake. "Our blood is just the same to our +bodies as coal is to a steam engine. The more coal the fireman puts +under the boiler (that is if it all burn well, and there is a good +draft) the hotter the fire is, and the more steam there is made." + +"Is our blood like steam?" asked Mab, as she tried to peep down at +her red nose and cheeks. But she could not see them very well so she +looked at Hal's. + +"Well, our blood is something like steam," said Daddy Blake, with a +laugh. "That is if we didn't have any blood we could not move around, +and live and breathe, any more than an engine could move if it had no +steam. + +"You see we eat food, which is fuel, or, just what coal and wood are +to an engine. The food is changed into blood inside our bodies, and +our heart pumps this blood through our arteries, which are like steam +pipes. Our heart is really a pump, you know; a very wonderful pump." + +"My heart is pumping hard," said Hal, putting his hand over his +thumping chest. + +"Well," went on his father, "the reason for that is, that when we run, +or skate fast, our body uses more blood, just as an engine which is +going fast uses more steam than one going slowly. The heart has to +pump faster to send more blood to our arms and legs, and all over, and +whenever anything goes fast, it is warmer than when it goes slowly. + +"If you rub your finger slowly over the window-pane, your finger will +_not_ be very warm, but if you rub it back and forth as _fast_ as you +can, your finger-tip will soon be almost warm enough to burn you. + +"That is something like what happens when you run quickly. The blood +goes through your body so much faster, and your heart beats so much +harder, trying to keep up, that you are soon warm. And it is a good +thing to exercise that way, for it makes the blood move faster, and +thus by using up the old blood, you make room for new, and fresh. + +"But I guess we've had enough talk about our hearts now," spoke Daddy +Blake with a laugh. "We'll eat some lunch and then take home our +fish." + +Daddy Blake built a little fire on the shore, near the frozen lake, +and over this blaze, when the flames were leaping up, and cracking, he +heated the chocolate he had brought. Then it was poured out into cups, +and nice chicken sandwiches were passed on little wooden plates. + +"Isn't this fun!" cried Mab as she sipped the last of her chocolate. + +"Indeed it is," agreed Hal. "I'm coming skating over to this lake +every day!" + +"Well, I guess not every day," spoke Daddy Blake with a smile. "But +we'll come as often as we can, for I want you to learn to be good +skaters. And besides, there may be snow soon, and that will spoil the +ice for us." + +"Oh, I hope it doesn't snow for a long time," sighed Mab. + +"So do I!" echoed her brother. "But, if it does, we can have some +other fun. Daddy will take us coasting; won't you?" + +"I guess so," answered Mr. Blake. + +The lunch things were packed in the basket, and then Hal and Mab went +back to where the pickerel fish they had caught were left lying on the +ice. + +"Why, they're frozen stiff!" Hal cried, as he picked up one fish, +which was like a stick of wood. + +"That shows you how cold it is," said Mr. Blake. "But mamma can thaw +out the fish by putting them in water, and we can have them for dinner +to-morrow." + +"When are we coming skating again?" asked Hal as they were on their +way home. + +"Oh, in a few days," his father promised. "Meanwhile you and Mab can +practice on the pond near home, and then you can have a race." + +"Oh, good!" cried Mab. "And I'll win!" + +"Huh! I guess not!" exclaimed Hal. "Boys always win races; don't they, +Daddy." + +"Well, not always," said Mr. Blake. "And Mab is becoming a good little +skater." + +"Well, I'll win!" declared Hal. "You see if I don't!" + +The next day was too cold for the children to go skating with +their Daddy, but a little later in the week it was warmer, and one +afternoon, coming home early from the office Mr. Blake said: + +"Come on now. I hear you two youngsters have been practicing skating +on the pond, so we'll go over there and have a race." + +"Hurray!" cried Hal. + +"Oh, I do hope I win!" exclaimed Mab. + +There were not many other skaters on the ice when the children and +their father reached it Mr. Blake marked off a place, by drawing two +lines on the ice with his skate. The space between them was about as +long as from the Blake's front gate to their back fence. + +"Now, Hal and Mab," said Daddy Blake, "take your places on this first +line. And when I call 'Go!' start off. The one who reaches the other +line first will win." + +Hal and Mab took their places. They were so eager to start that they +stepped over the line, before it was time. + +"Go back," said Daddy Blake, smiling. Finally they were both evenly on +the line. The other skaters came up to watch. + +"Go!" suddenly cried Daddy Blake. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A WINTER PIC-NIC + + +Hal and Mab started off on their race so evenly that neither one was +ahead of the other. The two children had learned to skate farily well +by this time, though of course they could not go very far, nor very +fast. And they could not cut any "fancy figures" on the ice such as +doing the "grape-vine twist," or others like that. + +"I--I--I think I'm going to win," said Mab as she skated along beside +her brother. + +"You'd better--better not talk," Hal panted. "That takes your breath, +and it's hard enough to breathe anyhow, when you're skating fast, +without talking." + +"You're talking," said Mab. + +"But I'm not going to talk any more," Hal answered, and he closed his +lips tightly. + +On and on they skated, side by side. + +"Oh, Hal's going to win!" cried some of the children who had gathered +around to watch. + +"No, Mab is!" shouted a number of little girls who were her friends. +"Mab will win!" + +Sometimes Mab would be in the lead, and then Hal would come up with a +rush and pass her. + +It was not very far to the "finish line," as the end of the race is +called. + +"Oh, I do hope I get there first!" thought Mab, her little heart +beating very fast. + +"I hope I win!" thought Hal. + +And that is always the way it is in races--each one wants to be first. +That is very right and proper, for it is a good thing to try and be +first, or best, in everything we do. Only we must do it fairly, and +not be mean, or try to get in the way of anyone else. And, if we don't +win, after we have done our best, why we must try and be cheerful +about it. And never forget to say to the one who has come out ahead: + +"Well, I am sorry I lost, but I am glad you won." + +That is being polite, or, as the big folks say; when they have races, +that is being "sportsman-like," and that that is the finest thing in +the world--to be really "sportsman-like" at all times. + +"Go on! Go on!" cried Daddy Blake. "Don't stop, children! Finish out +the race!" + +But Hal and Mab were getting a little tired now, though the race was +such a short one. Gradually Hal was skating ahead. + +"Oh dear! He's going to win!" thought Mab, but, just then, all of a +sudden, Hal's skate glided over a twig on the ice, and down he went. +"Ker-bunk-o!" + +Before Mab could stop herself she had slid over the finish line. + +"Oh, Mab wins! Mab has won the race!" cried her girl friends. + +Poor Hal, who was not much hurt, I am glad to say, got up. He looked +sorrowfully at his sister who had gone ahead of him, when he stumbled. +He did want so much to win! + +But Mab was a real "sportswoman," for there are such you know--even +little girls. + +"Hal, I didn't win!" she exclaimed, skating back to her brother, "It +isn't a fair race when some one falls; is it Daddy?" + +"Well, perhaps in a real big race they would count it, even if some of +the skaters fell," he said. "But this time you need not count--" + +"Well, I'm not going to count this!" interrupted Mab. "I don't want to +win the race that way. Come on, Hal. We won't count this, and we'll +race over again!" + +Now I call that real good of Mab. Don't you? + +Hal looked happy again. He didn't even mind the bruise on his knee, +where it had hit on the ice. + +"Well, I'd be glad to race over again," Hal said. "Next time I won't +fall." + +"Very well, race over once more," said Daddy Blake. + +So Hal and Mab did, and this time, after some hard skating, Hal +crossed the finish line a little ahead of his sister. Poor Mab tried +not to look sad but she could not help it. + +"You--you won the race, Hal," she said. + +"Well, maybe I got started a little ahead of you," he replied kindly. +"Anyhow, I'm older and of course I'm stronger. Oughtn't I give her a +head-start, Daddy?" + +"I think it would be more fair, perhaps," said Daddy Blake with a +smile. He was glad his children were so thoughtful. + +"Then let's race again," suggested Hal. + +"Oh, hurrah!" cried all the other children. "Another race! That's +three!" + +This time Hal let Mab start off a little ahead of him, when Mr. Blake +called "Go!" This "head-start," as we used to call it when I was a +boy, is called a "handicap" by the big folk, but you don't need to use +that big word, unless you care to. + +"Oh, Mab is going to win! Mab is going to win!" shouted the children. +And she did. She crossed the line ahead of Hal. And Oh! how glad she +was. + +"Now we've each won a race!" cried Hal, as he helped his sister take +off her skates. + +A few days after that Daddy Blake asked the children: + +"How would you like to go on a winter picnic?" + +"A winter pic-nic!" cried Hal. "What is that?" + +"Why we'll take our skates, and a basket of lunch, and go over to the +big lake. We'll have a long skate, and at noon we'll eat our lunch +in a log cabin I know of on the shores of the lake. That will be our +winter pic-nic." + +"Oh, how fine!" cried Mab. "When may we go?" + +"To-morrow," answered Daddy Blake. + +"Oh, I'm sure something will happen!" cried Aunt Lolly. + +And something did, but it was something nice, and soon you will know +all about it. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +CUTTING THE ICE + + +Hal and Mab Blake were awake very early the next morning. Mab jumped +out of bed first and ran to the window. + +"Is it raining?" asked Hal, from his room. He put one foot out from +under the covers to see how cold it was--I mean he wanted to see how +cold the air in his room was--not how cold his foot was; for that was +warm, from having been asleep in bed with him all night. + +"No, it isn't raining," said Mab, "but it looks as if it might snow." + +"I hope it doesn't snow until we have our pic-nic on the ice," +exclaimed Hal, as he jumped out of bed, and began to dress. + +Mamma Blake was very busy cooking breakfast, and so was Aunt Lolly. +They had to get the meal and also put up the lunch for the printer +pic-nic. A large basket was packed full of good things to eat. I just +wish I had some of them now, I'm so hungry! + +"Well, are you all ready?" asked Mr. Blake of the children, after +breakfast. + +"I am, Daddy," answered Hal, pulling on his red mittens, and swinging +his skates by a strap over his shoulder. "I'm all ready." + +"And so am I," replied Mab, as she tied her cap strings under her +chin, so it would not blow away--I mean so the cap would not blow +away, not Mab's chin; for that was made fast to her face, you see, and +couldn't blow off, no matter how much wind whistled down the chimney. + +"Well, then we'll start," said Daddy Blake. Just then there came a +ring at the front door bell, and into the hall tramped Charlie and +Mary Johnson, who lived next door to the Blake family. The visitors +were warmly dressed, and Charlie had two pairs of skates slung over +his shoulder by the straps. + +"Oh, we're going on a pic-nic, Mary!" cried Mab, thinking perhaps her +little girl friend had come to ask her to go skating. + +"So are we!" exclaimed Charlie, and he smiled at Daddy Blake, who +laughed heartily. + +"Oh, how funny!" cried Hal. "Are you going to where we are going, I +wonder?" + +The Johnson children looked at Mr. Blake and giggled. + +"Yes," he answered with a smile, "they are going to the same place we +are, Hal and Mab. I invited them to go with us, as I thought you would +like company. And I guess mamma put up lunch enough for all of us; +didn't you?" he asked, turning toward his wife. + +"Indeed I did!" cried Mamma Blake. "There's a fine lunch." + +"Oh, how lovely of you to come with us!" cried Mab, as she put her +arms around Mary. + +"It's just dandy!" shouted Hal, clapping Charlie on the back. Then, as +he saw that Charlie was carrying his sister Mary's skates, Hal took +Mab's and put them on a strap with his own, saying: + +"I'll carry them for you, Mab!" + +"Thank you," she said, most politely. "You are very kind." + +"Well, do you like my little surprise?" asked Daddy Blake as they +started off toward the lake, to hold their winter pic-nic. + +"Surely we do!" answered Hal. "It's fine that you asked Mary and +Charlie to come with us." + +It was quite cold out in the air, and, as Mab had said, it did look +like snow. There were dull, gray clouds in the sky, and the sun did +not shine. But the children were happy for all that. In a little while +they reached the big frozen lake, and, putting on their skates they +started to glide over the ice. + +"We will skate about a mile, and then we will rest, and have a little +skating race, perhaps, and afterward we can eat our lunch." + +"And what will we do after that?" asked Charlie. + +"Oh, skate some more," answered Daddy Blake. "That is if you want to." + +The children had much fun on their skates. + +And once, when Charlie sat down on the ice, to punch with his knife a +hole in his strap, so that it would fit tighter, something happened. +Charlie laid down his knife, and when he went to pick it up, he found +that it had sunk down in the ice, making a little hole for itself to +hide in. + +"Oh, look here!" he cried. "My knife has dug down in the ice just like +your dog Roly-Poly used to dig a hole for a bone." + +"Poor Roly!" sighed Mab. "I wish we had him now!" + +"But he's gone," said Hal. "Well never see him again," and he looked +at Charlie's knife down in the ice. "What made it do that, Daddy?" he +asked. "What made it sink down?" + +"The knife was warmer than the ice, and melted a hole in it," +explained Mr. Blake. "The knife was warm from being in Charlie's +pocket. + +"I read once about some men who went up to the North Pole," he +continued. "They had with them a barrel of molasses, but it was so +cold at the North Pole that the molasses was frozen solid. When the +men wanted any to sweeten their coffee they would have to chop +out chunks with a hatchet. They had very little sugar and so used +molasses. + +"Once one of the men, after chopping some frozen molasses for +breakfast, forgot what he was doing, and left the hatchet on top of +the solid, frosty sweet stuff in the barrel. The next time he wanted +the hatchet to chop with he could not find it. The hatchet had melted +its way down through the frozen molasses, until it came to the bottom +of the barrel, inside, and there it stayed until all the sweet stuff +was chopped out in the spring." + +The children laughed at this funny story, and a little later they +began skating around. They had races among themselves. Hal raced with +Charlie, and once he won, and once Charlie did. But Mab, who raced +with Mary, won both times. Mab was becoming a good skater, you see. + +And such fun as it was eating lunch in the log cabin. The little +building kept off the cold wind, and Daddy Blake built a fire on the +old hearth. Hot chocolate was made; and how everyone did enjoy it! + +After lunch they all went skating again. As they glided around a +little point of land, that stuck out in the lake, Hal, who was skating +on ahead, cried out, in a surprised voice: + +"Oh, look at the men and horses on the ice! What are they doing?" + +"Cutting ice," said Daddy Blake. "Come, we will go over and see how it +is done," and away they all skated to where the men were gathering the +harvest of ice, just as farmers gather in their harvest of hay and +grain. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A COLD HOUSE + + +"Will you please show these children how you cut ice, and store it +away, so you can sell it when the hot summer days come?" asked Daddy +Blake of one of the many men who, with horses and strange machinery, +were gathered in a little sheltered cove of the lake. + +"To be sure I will," the man answered. "Just come over here and you +will see it all." + +"Oh, but look at the water!" cried Mab, as she pointed to a place +where the ice had been cut, and taken out, leaving a stretch of black +water. + +"I won't let you fall in that," promised the man. "The ice is so thick +this year, on account of the cold, that you could go close to the edge +of the hole, and the ice would not break with you. See, there is a man +riding on an ice cake just as if it were a raft of wood." + +"Oh, so he is!" cried Hal, as he saw a man, with big boots and a long +pole, standing on a glittering white ice-raft. The man was poling +himself along in the water, just as Daddy Blake had pushed the boat +along when he was spearing eels in the Summer. + +"He looks just like a picture I saw, of a Polar bear on his cake of +ice, up at the North Pole," spoke Charlie, "only he isn't a bear, of +course," the little boy added quickly, thinking the man might think he +was calling him names. The head ice man, and several others, laughed +when they heard this. + +"Now, I'll show you how we cut ice, beginning at the beginning," said +the head man, or foreman, as he is called. + +"Of course," the foreman went on, "we have to wait until the ice +freezes thick enough so we men, and the horses won't break through it. +When it is about eighteen inches thick, or, better still, two feet, we +begin to cut. First we mark it off into even squares, like those on a +checker board. A horse is hitched to a marking machine, which is like +a board with sharp spikes in it, each spike being twenty-four inches +from the one next to it. The spikes are very sharp. + +"The horse is driven across the ice one way, making a lot of long, +deep scratches in the ice, where the scratches criss-cross one another +they make squares." + +"What is that for?" Hal wanted to know. + +"That," the foreman explained, "is so the cakes of ice will be all the +same size, nice and square and even, and will fit closely together +when we pile them in the ice house. If we had the cakes of ice of all +different shapes and sizes they would not pile up evenly, and we would +waste too much room." + +"I see!" cried Mab. "It's just like the building blocks I had when I +was a little girl." + +"That's it!" laughed the foreman. "You remember how nicely you could +pile your blocks into the box, when you put them all in evenly and +nicely. But if you threw them in quickly, without stopping to make +them straight, they would pile up helter-skelter, and maybe only half +of them would fit. It is that way with the ice blocks." + +"What do you do after you mark off the ice into squares?" Charlie +Johnson asked. + +"Then men come along with big saws, that have very large teeth, and +they saw out each block. Sometimes we cut the marking lines in the ice +so deeply that a few blows from an axe will break the blocks up nice +and even, and we don't have to saw them. + +"Then, after the cakes are separated, they are floated down to a +little dock, and carried up into the store house. Come we will go look +at that store house now. But button up your coats well, for it is very +cold in this ice store house." + +The foreman led Daddy Blake and the children to a big house, five +times as large as the one where the Blake family lived. Running up to +this ice house from the ground near the lake, was a long incline, like +a toboggan slide, or a long wooden hill. And clanking up this wooden +hill was an endless chain, with strips of wood fastened across it. + +The chain was something like the moving stairways which are in some +department stores instead of elevators. Only, instead of square, flat +stairs there were these cross pieces of wood, to hold the cakes of ice +from slipping down the toboggan slide back into the lake again. + +Men would float the ice cakes up to the end of the wooden hill. Then, +with sharp iron hooks, they would pull and haul on the cakes until +they were caught on one of these cross pieces. Then the engine that +moved this endless chain, would puff and grunt, and up would slide the +glittering ice, cake after cake. + +At the top of the incline other men were waiting. They used their +sharp hooks to pull the ice cakes off the endless chain, upon a +platform of boards, and from there the cakes were slid along into the +store house, where they were stacked in piles up to the roof, there +to stay until they were needed in the hot summer, to make ice cream, +lemonade and ice cream cones. + +"Oh, but it is cold in here!" cried Mab as they went in the place +where the ice was kept. And indeed it was, for there were tons and +tons--thousands of pounds--of the frozen cakes. From them arose a sort +of steam, or mist, and through this mist the men could hardly be seen +as they stacked away the ice. The men looked like shadows moving about +in a cold fog on a frosty, cold, wintry morning. + +"Bang! Bang! Clatter! Smash! Crash!" went the cakes of ice as they +came up the incline, and slid down the long wooden chutes, where the +men hooked them off and piled them up. Pile after pile was made of the +ice, until it was stacked up like an ice berg, inside the store house. + +"Why doesn't the ice melt when the hot summer comes?" asked Hal. + +"Because this building keeps the hot sun off the ice," explained the +foreman. "Very little heat can get in our ice house, and it takes heat +to melt ice. Of course some of it melts, but very little. Then, too, +the building has two walls. In between the double walls is sawdust, +and that sawdust helps to keep the heat out, and the cold in. It is +like a refrigerator you see. Ice melts very slowly in a refrigerator +because the cold is kept in, and the outside heat kept out." + +"Oh, but it's cold here!" cried Mab shivering. "Let's go outside." And +outside something very strange happened. + +The children never would have believed it had they read it in a book. +But as it really happened to them they knew that it was true, no +matter how strange it was. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A GREAT SURPRISE + + +"How do you get the ice out of this big house when you want it in the +summer time?" asked Hal, as the foreman led them along the wooden +platforms out of the big, cold storehouse. And how much warmer it was +outside; even if the sun did not shine, than it was in the ice house. +The children were glad to come out. + +"We load the ice from here into freight cars," the man explained. +"See, the ice house is built in two parts, with a passage-way between. +And is this passage is a railroad track. The engine backs a freight +car in here, the big doors of the car are opened, and the ice is slid +in on wooden chutes, something like the iron chutes the coal man uses. +Then, when the car is full, it is pulled down to the city in a long +train, with other cars." + +"And then the icemen come with their wagons, get the ice and bring it +to us," finished Mab. "I've seen them." + +"That's right, little lady!" said the foreman with a laugh. And +sometimes ice comes to the city by a boat, instead of in freight cars, +and the men with wagons go down to the boat-dock to get the cold, +frozen cakes. And now you have seen how ice is cut in winter, and +stored away until we need it in the summer." + +"My!" exclaimed Hal, as he looked up at the big ice store-house. +"There must be enough ice in there for the whole world!" + +"Oh, no indeed!" cried Daddy Blake. "No enough for one city. And +besides this ice, which is called natural, because Jack Frost and +Mother Nature make it, there is other ice, called artificial. That is +what is made by machinery." + +"Why, can anybody make ice by machinery?" asked Mab in surprise. + +"Oh, yes, even on the hottest day in summer," her papa told her. "But +it takes a lot of machinery. It is done by putting water into small +metal tanks, and then by taking all the warmth out of the water by +dipping the tanks into a big vat of salt and water which is made very +cold by something called ammonia. It is too hard for you to understand +now, but when you get older I will explain. Now I think we had better +be skating home," said Daddy Blake. + +As they walked down to the frozen lake, there was a barking sound from +a small shed under which was an engine, that hauled up the ice cakes. +Out from the shed rushed a little dog, spotted black and white, and +straight for the Blake children he rushed, barking and wagging his +tail so that it almost wagged off. + +"Look out!" cried Daddy Blake. + +"Don't be afraid!" called the engineer, laughing. "He's so gentle he +wouldn't hurt a baby!" + +And how strangely the dog was acting! He would jump up first on Hal, +and then on Mab, trying to lick their faces and hands with his red +tongue. + +"Oh dear!" cried Mab, who was a little bit frightened. + +"He won't hurt you!" exclaimed the engineer. "Here, Spot!" he called. +"Leave the children alone. Be good, Spot!" + +But the dog would not mind. He jumped up on Hal, barking as loudly as +he could, and wagging his tail so hard that it is a wonder it did not +drop off. The animal seemed wild with delight. + +"Why! Why!" cried Mab, as she looked carefully at the dog when he +stood still a moment to rest after all the excitement. "That dog looks +just like our Roly-Poly, only Roly was white and not spotted black and +white," said Mab. + +"Well, when I got this dog he was all white," explained the engineer. +"He got spotted black by accident." + +"I wonder if that could be Roly?" spoke Daddy Blake thoughtfully. +"Here, Roly-Poly!" he called. "Come here, sir!" + +In an instant the dog made a jump for Daddy Blake, barking joyfully, +and almost turning a somersault. + +"I believe it is Roly!" shouted Hal. "It's our dog!" + +"But how could it be?" asked Mab. "Roly was lost under the ice." + +"And that's just where I got this dog," the engineer explained. "Out +from under the ice. One day, after the first freeze this winter, I was +Balking along a little pond. I came to a thin place in the ice, and +looking through, from the shore where I stood, I saw a little white +dog down below, just as if he were under a pane of glass. + +"I broke the ice with a stick and got him out. I thought he was dead, +but I took him home, thawed him out, gave him some hot milk, and soon +he was as lively as a cricket. And I've had this dog ever since. When +I came here to work at ice cutting I brought him with me." + +"But you said he was pure white when you got him out," said Daddy +Blake wonderingly. + +"Yes, that's right," answered the ice engineer. "So he was. And how he +got spotted was like this. I was blacking my boots one day, and I left +the bottle of black polish on a low bench. The dog grabbed it, playful +like, and the black stuff spilled all over him. That's how he got +spotted. He was worse than he is now, but it's wearing off." + +"Then I'm sure this is our Roly-Poly!" cried "Oh, you dear Roly!" she +cried, and the spotted poodle dog tried to climb up in her arms and +kiss her, he was so glad to see her. + +"I believe it is Roly," said Daddy Blake. "It is all very wonderful, +but it must be our Roly." + +"Well, if he's yours, take him," said the engineer kindly. "I always +wondered how he got under the ice. But of course he could not tell +me." + +"We were skating, the children and I, one day," explained Daddy Blake. +"Poor Roly slipped through an air hole in the ice. Then he must have +floated down the pond underneath the ice, until he came to another +thin place, where you saw him." + +"I guess that's it," the engineer agreed. "He was almost drowned and +nearly frozen when I found him. But I'm glad he's all right now, and +I'm glad the children have him back." + +"Oh, and maybe we aren't glad!" cried Mab. "Aren't we, Hal?" + +"Well, I guess!" he cried. "The gladdest ever!" + +Roly-Poly was happy too. He was so glad that he did not know whom to +love first, nor how much. He raced back and forth from the children to +Mr. Blake, and then over to the kind engineer, who had saved his life. + +"Oh, let's hurry home!" cried Mab. "I want to show mamma and Aunt +Lolly and Uncle Pennywait that Roly-Poly is still alive." + +And so Daddy Blake and the children skated down to the end of the +lake, Roly-Poly running along with them. He had barked his good-byes +to the engineer, and Daddy Blake and Hal and Mab had thanked the nice +man over and over again. + +"Don't fall through any more air holes, Roly!" cautioned Hal, as he +skated along with Charlie, while Mab glided slowly at the side of +Mary. + +"Bow-wow!" barked Roly, which meant, I suppose, that he would be very +careful. + +Soon they were all safely home, and Roly-Poly barked louder than ever, +and almost wagged off his tail, sideways and up and down. + +"Oh, how wonderful!" cried Aunt Lolly when she heard the story. "I +knew something would happen. Something wonderful has happened." + +And so it had. And it was really wonderful that Roly had floated down +beneath the ice, and that the engineer had come along just in time to +get him out alive. + +And so Roly came back, just as I told you he would. In a few weeks the +black spots wore off him, and he was all white again, and as lively +and frisky as ever, hiding anything he could find, and barking and +wagging his tail like anything. + +"Won't all the boys and girls be surprised when they see our dog back +again?" asked Mab. + +"I guess they will," agreed Hal. "It is just like a fairy story; isn't +it?" + +"Oh, it's better than a fairy story, for it's true!" exclaimed Mab. +"If it was a fairy story we would wake up and Roly-Poly wouldn't be +here. Oh! I am so glad!" + +Hal and Mab had many more days of skating on the pond with Daddy; +Blake. And then, one morning, when they woke up, the ground was deeply +covered with white snow. + +"No more skating right away!" cried Daddy Blake, "The ice has gone to +sleep under white blankets." + +"But we can have other fun!" said Hal. + +"Lots of it!" cried Mab, joyfully. "Oh we'll have more fun!" + +And what fun they had with Daddy Blake I will tell you about in the +next book, as this one is all filled up. So I will say good-bye to you +for a little while, only a little while, though. + +THE END + +The next volume in this series will be called "Daddy Takes Us +Coasting." + +It will be about Santa Claus and Christmas. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10220 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..53a04ec --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10220 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10220) diff --git a/old/10220.txt b/old/10220.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29f13cf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10220.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2256 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Daddy Takes Us Skating, by Howard R. Garis + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Daddy Takes Us Skating + +Author: Howard R. Garis + +Release Date: November 23, 2003 [eBook #10220] + +Language: English + +Chatacter set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DADDY TAKES US SKATING*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +DADDY TAKES US SKATING + +By + +HOWARD R. GARIS + +1914 + + + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A COLD NIGHT + + +"Oh, how red your nose is!" cried little Mabel Blake, one day, as her +brother Hal came running out of the school yard, where he had been +playing with some other boys. Mabel was waiting for him to walk home +with her as he had promised. + +"So's your's red, too, Mab!" Harry said. "It's as red--as red as some +of the crabs we boiled at our seashore cottage this summer." + +"Is my nose red?" asked Mab of some of her girl friends. + +"It surely is!" replied Jennie Bruce. "All our noses are red!" she +went on. "It's the cold that makes 'em so. It's very cold to-day, and +soon it will be winter, with lots of snow and ice! Oh! I just love +winter!" + +"Come on, Hal!" called Mab. "Let's hurry home before it gets any +colder!" + +"Let's run!" suggested Hal. "When you run you get warm, and you don't +mind the cold." + +"What makes us get warm when we run?" his sister inquired, as she took +hold of his hand and raced along beside him. + +"I don't know," Hal answered, "but we'll ask Daddy when we get home. +He can tell us everything." + +"Huh! Not everything!" cried Sammie Jones, one of the nice boys with +whom Hal played, "Your father doesn't know everything." + +"Yes he does, too!" exclaimed Hal. Doesn't he, Mab?" + +"Yep!" answered the little girl, shaking her head from side to side so +fast that you could hardly tell which were her curls and which was her +hair ribbon. + +"Huh! Does your father know what makes a steam engine go?" asked +Sammie. + +"Sure he does!" said Hal. "And he told us about it once, too; didn't +he, Mab?" + +"Yes, he did," the little girl answered. "I know, too. It's hot water +in the boiler that makes it go. The hot water swells up, and turns +into steam, and the steam pushes on the wheels, and that makes the +engine go." + +"And our Daddy knows what makes an automobile go, too," went on Hal. +"He knows everything." + +"Huh! Well, I guess mine does then, too!" spoke Sammie. I'm going to +ask him what--what--makes it lightning!" + +"And then will you tell us?" asked Mab, for she and Hal wanted to know +about everything they saw. + +"Yes, I'll tell you," promised Sammie. "And we'll ask Daddy Blake what +makes us warm inside when we run," went on Hal, "and then we'll tell +you that, Sammie." + +The children ran home from school, and, thought it was cold, for it +was almost winter now, they did not mind it. Their noses got more and +more red, it is true, but they knew when they were in the house, near +the warm fire, the red would all fade out. + +Hal and Mab said good-bye to Sammie, as he turned down his street, +and then the little Blake boy and girl, hand in hand, ran on to their +house. + +As they reached it they saw their mamma and their Aunt Lolly out in +the front yard, bringing in pots of flowers and vines. + +"Quick, children!" called Mamma Blake, "You are just in time! Here, +Hal, you and Mab put down your books" and help us to carry in the +flowers. Take only the small pots, and don't drop them, or get any +dirt on your clothes." + +"Oh, I'm sure something will happen if you let the children carry any +of the flowers!" cried Aunt Lolly, who was a dear, fussy little old +lady. "They'll drop them on their toes, or spill the dirt on the +floor--or something." + +"Oh, I guess not," laughed Mamma Blake. "Anyhow we need help to get +all the plants in before dark. There is going to be a very heavy +frost, and everything will freeze hard to-night. It will be very +cold!" + +"Is that why you are bringing in the plants, mamma?" asked Mab. + +"Yes, so they will not freeze and die," Mrs. Blake answered. "Flowers +freeze very easily." + +The children were glad to help their mother and Aunt Lolly. Roly-Poly, +the fat little white poodle dog, tried to help, too, but he upset more +plants than he carried in, though he did manage to drag one pot to the +steps. + +Besides, Roly-Poly was always running off to look for a clothespin, +or something like that, to bury under the earth, making believe, I +suppose, that it was a bone. + +"The ground will soon be frozen too hard for you to dig in it with +your paws, Roly-Poly," said Mamma Blake, when it was nearly dark, and +all the plants had been brought into the warm kitchen. "Come, now +children," she called. "Wash your hands, and supper will soon be +ready. Then Daddy will be here, and he will shake down the furnace +fire, and make it hot, for it is going to be a very cold night." + +A little later, when supper was almost ready, a step was heard in the +front hall. + +"Oh, here comes Daddy now!" cried Mab, making a rush for the door. + +"Let's ask him what makes the cold," exclaimed Hal, "and why we get +warm inside when we run." Hal was very curious. + +"Ah, here we are!" cried Mr. Blake, with a jolly laugh, as he came in +rubbing his ears. He caught Hal up in one arm, and Mab in the other. + +"Oh, how cold your cheeks are, Daddy!" cried Mab as she kissed him. + +"Yes, it is going to be a frosty night, and freeze," he said. "And if +it freezes enough I will tell you a secret I have been keeping for +some time." + +"Oh Daddy! Another secret!" cried Mab. "Tell us what it is, please!" + +"Wait until we see if it freezes hard enough to-night," replied her +papa. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ICE IN THE BOTTLE + + +Hal and Mab were so excited at hearing their father speak about a new +secret, that they could hardly eat their supper. There were so many +questions they wanted to ask. But they managed to clear their plates, +and then, when Mr. Blake had on his slippers, and had put plenty of +coal on the furnace, Hal climbed up on one knee, and Mab on the other. + +"Now, Daddy, please tell us the secret," begged the little girl. + +"And tell us what makes water freeze, and how it gets cold, and what +makes us warm when we run," added Hal. "Sammie Jones is going to ask +his father what makes it lightning in a thunder storm." + +"My goodness me sakes alive, and some peanut candy!" cried Daddy Blake +with a laugh. "What a lot of questions!" + +"But the secret first, please," begged Mab. + +"Well, let me see if it is going to be cold enough for me to tell +you," said Mr. Blake. "It must be freezing cold, or the secret will be +of no use." + +Daddy Blake went to the door, outside of which hung an instrument +called a thermometer. I guess you have seen them often enough. A +thermometer is a glass tube, fastened to a piece of wood or perhaps +tin, and inside is a thin, shiny column. This column is mercury, or +quicksilver. Some thermometers have, instead of mercury, alcohol, +colored red, so it can easily be seen. + +You see mercury, or alcohol, will not freeze, except in much colder +weather than you ever have where you live, unless you live at the +North Pole. Up there it gets so cold that sometimes alcohol will +became as thick as molasses, and then it is not of any use in a +thermometer. But mercury will not freeze, even at the North Pole. + +The word thermometer means something by which heat can be measured. +"Thermos" is a Greek word, meaning heat, and "Meter" means to measure. +Though of course a thermometer will measure cold as well as heat. + +"Is it cold enough?" asked Hal, as Daddy Blake came back from looking +at the thermometer. + +"Not quite," his father answered. "But the mercury is going down the +tube." + +"What makes it go down?" asked Mab. + +"Well, let me think a minute, and I'll see if I can make it simple +enough so you can understand," said Daddy Blake. + +Those of you who have read the other "Daddy" books know how many +things Mr. Blake told his children, and what good times Hal and Mab +had with him. He was always taking them somewhere, and often one or +the other of the children would call out: + +"Oh, Daddy is going to take us walking!" + +Sometimes perhaps it might not be for a walk. It might be for a trip +in the steam cars. But, wherever it was, Hal and Mab were always ready +to go with their father. + +In the first book I told you how Daddy Blake took Hal and Mab camping. +They went to live in the woods in a white tent and had lots of fun. +Once they were frightened in the night, but it was only because +Roly-Poly, their poodle dog-- + +But there, I'm not going to spoil it by telling you, when you might +want to read the book for yourself. + +In the second volume, called "Daddy Takes Us Fishing," I made up a +story about how Hal and Mab went to the seashore cottage, and learned +to catch different kinds of fish; even the queer, pinching crabs, that +turned red when you boiled them. + +Once Mab fell overboard, and the children nearly drifted out to sea, +but they got safely back. After that they went to the big animal show. +And in the book "Daddy Takes Us to the Circus," I told you how Hal and +Mab were accidentally taken away in one of the circus wagons, and how +they traveled all night. And the next day they rode on the elephant's +back, and also on a camel's and they went in the big parade. Oh! it +was just wonderful the adventures they had! + +Hal and Mab lived with their papa and mamma, and Aunt Lolly, in a fine +house in the city. But they often went to the country and to other +places where they had good times. In the family was also Uncle +Pennywait. That wasn't his real name, but the children called him that +because he so often said: + +"Wait a minute and I'll give you a penny." + +Hal and Mab used to buy lollypops with the pennies their uncle gave +them. And then--Oh, yes, I mustn't forget Roly-Poly, the funny, fat, +poodle dog who was always hiding things in holes in the ground, +thinking they were bones, I guess. Sometimes he would even hide Aunt +Lolly's spectacles and she would have the hardest work finding them. +Oh, such hard work! + +"Well, Daddy," asked Mab, after Mr. Blake had sat silent for some +time, "have you thought of a way to tell us what makes the shiny stuff +in the--in the--in the--Oh! I can't say that big word!" she finished +with a sigh. + +"The mercury in the thermometer!" laughed Daddy Blake. "You want to +know what makes it go down? Well, it's the cold. You see cold makes +anything get smaller and shrink, and heat makes things swell up, and +get larger. That's why the steam from hot water swells up and makes +the engine go, and pull the cars. + +"And in hot weather the mercury swells, puffs itself out and creeps +up inside the little glass tube. In winter the mercury gets cold, and +shrinks down, just as it is doing to-night." + +"But will it get cold enough so you can tell us the secret?" Hal +wanted to know, most anxiously. + +"Perhaps," said his father. "We will try it and see. I will fill a +bottle with water, and we will set it out on the back porch to freeze. +If it freezes by morning I will know that I can tell you the secret." + +"Oh, do we have to wait until morning?" cried Mab, in disappointed +tones. + +"That won't be long," laughed her father. "You can hardly keep your +eyes open now. I guess the sand man has been here. Go to bed, and it +will soon be morning. Then, if there is ice in the bottle, I'll tell +you the secret." + +Daddy Blake took a bottle, and filled it with water. He put the cork +in tightly, and then twisted some wires over the top. + +"What are the wires for?" asked Hal. + +"So the ice, that I think will freeze inside the bottle, will not push +out the cork," explained Daddy Blake. "Now off to bed with you!" + +You may be sure Hal and Mab did not want to go to bed, even if they +were sleepy. They wanted to stay up and watch the water in the bottle +freeze. But Mamma Blake soon had them tucked snugly under the covers. + +Then Daddy Blake fixed the furnace fire for the night, as it was +getting colder and colder. Next he opened a package he had brought +home with him. Something inside jingled and clanked, and shone in the +lamplight as brightly as silver. + +"What have you there?" asked Aunt Lolly. + +"That's the children's secret," answered Daddy Blake, as he wrapped +the package up again. + +Hal was up first in the morning, but Mab soon followed him. + +"Daddy, where is the bottle?" called Hal. + +"May we get it?" asked Mab. + +"Oh, it is much too cold for you to go out until you are warmly +dressed!" cried Daddy. "I'll bring the bottle in so you can see it." + +He went out on the porch in his bath robe and slippers, and quickly +brought in the bottle of water he had set out the night before. + +"Oh, look!" cried Hal. + +For the bottle was broken into several pieces, and standing up on the +board on which it had been set, was a solid, clear piece of ice, just +the shape of the glass bottle itself. + +"Oh, somebody broke our bottle!" cried Mab. "Now we can't hear the +secret!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE NEW SKATES + + +Daddy Blake laughed when Mab said that. + +"Yes, the bottle is broken," he said, "but it was the ice that broke +it." + +"How could it?" Hal wanted to know. + +"I told you last night," said Daddy Blake, when the children were at +breakfast table a little later, "that heat made things get larger, and +that cold made them get smaller. That was true, but sometimes, as you +see now, freezing cold makes water get larger. That is when it is cold +enough to make ice. + +"As long as there was only water in the bottle it was all right, the +glass was not broken. But in the night it got colder and colder. All +the warmth was drawn off into the cold air. Then the water froze, and +swelled up. The ice tried to push the cork out of the bottle, just as +you would try to push up the lid of a box if you were shut up inside +one." + +"I guess the wires over the cork wouldn't let the ice push it out," +spoke Hal. + +"That's it," Daddy Blake answered. "And so, as the ice could not lift +out the cork, it swelled to the sides, instead of to the top, and +pushing out as hard as it could, it broke the bottle. The glass fell +away, and left a little statue of ice, just the shape of the bottle, +standing in its place. + +"How wonderful!" cried Mab, her blue eyes open wide. + +"Yes, the freezing of ice is very wonderful," Daddy Blake said, as he +passed Hal his third slice of bread and jam. "If the cracks in a great +rock became filled with water, and the water froze, the swelling of +the ice would split the great, strong stone. + +"There is scarcely anything that can stand against the swelling of +freezing ice. If you filled a big, hollow cannon ball with water, and +let it freeze, the ice would burst the iron." + +"It burst our milk bottle once, I know," said Aunt Lolly. + +"Yes," spoke Daddy Blake. "That is why, on cold mornings, the milkman +raises the tin top on the bottle. That gives the frozen milk a chance +to swell up out of the top, and saves the bottle from cracking." + +"One morning last winter," said Mamma Blake, "when we had milk bottles +with the pasteboard tops, the milk froze and there was a round bit of +frozen milk sticking up out of the bottle, with the round pasteboard +cover on top, like a hat." + +"And that's what saved the bottle from breaking," said Daddy Blake, +"If I had not wired down the cork of our bottle the water would have +pushed itself up, after it was frozen, and would have stuck out of the +bottle neck, like a round icicle." + +"But what about our secret?" asked Hal. "Is it cold enough for you to +tell us about it?" + +"I think so," answered Daddy Blake, with a queer little twinkle in his +eyes. "As long as the water in the bottle was frozen, the pond will +soon be covered with ice," he said. "And we need ice to make use of +the secret." + +"Oh, I just wonder what it is?" cried Mab, clapping her hands. + +"I think I can guess," spoke Hal. + +Daddy Blake went out in the hall, and came back with two paper +bundles. He placed one at Mab's place, and gave the other to Hal. + +"I want something, so I can cut the string!" Hal cried, and he laid +his package down on the floor, while he searched through his pockets +for his knife. + +Just then Roly-Poly came into the breakfast room, barking. He saw +Hal's package on the floor, and, thinking, I suppose, that it must be +meant for him to play with, the little poodle dog at once began to +drag it away. Though, as the ground was frozen, I don't know how he +was going to bury it, if that was what he intended to do. + +"Hi there, Roly!" cried Hal. "Come back with that, if you please, +sir!" + +"Bow-wow!" barked the little poodle dog, and I suppose he was saying: + +"Oh, can't I have it a little while?" + +By this time Mab had her package open. + +"Oh!" she cried. "It's skates! Ice skates! Oh, I've always wanted a +pair!" + +"Ha! That's what I thought they were, when Daddy talked so much about +ice and freezing," said Hal. + +He had managed, in the meanwhile, to get his bundle away from +Roly-Poly. + +Opening it, Hal found in the package a pair of shining ice skates, +just like those Mab was trying on her shoes. + +"Oh, thank you, Daddy!" Hal cried. + +"And I thank you, too!" added Mab. I'd get up and kiss you, only my +mouth is all jam. I'll kiss you twice as soon as I've washed." + +"That will do," laughed her father. "Do you like your skates, +children?" + +"Oh, do we?" they cried, and by the way they said it you could easily +tell that they did. + +"And Daddy's going to take us skating; aren't you?" asked Hal as he +measured his skates on his shoes to see if they would fit. They did. +Oh! Daddy Blake knew just how to buy things to have them right, I tell +you. + +"Yes, I'll take you skating, and show you how to stand up on the +ice--that is as soon as it is thick enough on the pond to make it +safe, and hold us up," promised the children's father. + +Just then Mamma Blake came running up from down the cellar. She was +much excited. + +"Oh, come quickly!" she called to her husband. "Something has happened +to the stationary wash-tubs. The water is spurting all over the +cellar. Oh, do hurry!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FROZEN POND + + +Daddy Blake hurried down cellar. Hal and Mab carefully putting away +their new skates, followed their father. Roly-Poly, the little fat +poodle dog looked around to see if he could find anything to drag +off and hide, but, seeing nothing, he went down cellar also, barking +loudly at each step. + +"Hal! Mab!" called Aunt Lolly. "Come back here, dears!" + +"We want to see what has happened!" answered Hal. + +"Oh, you'll get hurt! I'm sure you will!" exclaimed the dear, little, +fussy old lady aunt. + +"No, it isn't anything serious!" called Daddy Blake when he saw what +had happened. "Only one of the water pipes has burst. We must send for +the plumber. Wait, children, until I shut off the water, and then you +can come down. It is like a shower-bath now." + +Daddy Blake found the faucet, by which he could shut off the water at +the stationary wash-tubs, and then, when it had stopped spurting from +the burst pipe, he called to Hal and Mab: + +"Now you may come and see how strong ice is. Not only does it burst +glass bottles, but it will even crack an iron pipe." + +"Just like it cracked a cannon ball!" cried Hal, and he was in such a +hurry to get down the cellar steps that he jumped two at a time. + +That might have been all right, only Roly-Poly, the little fat poodle +dog, did the same thing. He became tangled up in Hal's legs, and, +a moment later, the little boy and the dog were rolling toward the +bottom of the steps, over and over just like a pumpkin. + +"Oh!" cried Mab, holding fast to the handrail, a little frightened. + +"Oh my!" exclaimed Mamma Blake at the top of the cellar steps. "What +has happened?" + +"Oh my goodness me sakes alive and some orange pudding!" exclaimed +Aunt Lolly. "I just knew _something_ would happen!" + +But nothing much did, after all, for Daddy Blake, as soon as he heard +Hal falling, ran to the foot of the stairs, and there he caught his +little boy before Hal had bounced down many steps. + +"There you are!" cried Daddy Blake, as he set Hal upright on his feet. +"Not hurt a bit; are you?" + +"N-n-n-n-no!" stammered Hal, as he caught his breath, which had almost +gotten away from him. "I'm not hurt. Is Roly-Poly?" + +Roly was whirling about, barking and trying to catch his tail, so I +guess he was not much hurt. The truth was that both Hal and Roly were +so fat and plump, that falling down a few cellar steps did not hurt +them in the least. + +"Well, now we'll look at the burst water pipe," said Daddy Blake, +when the excitement was over. The water had stopped spurting out now, +though there was quite a puddle of it on the cellar floor by the tubs. + +Mr. Blake lifted Hal across this, and showed him where there was a big +crack in the water pipe. Then he showed Mab, also lifting her across +the little pond in the cellar. + +"You see the pipe was full of water," Mr. Blake explained, "and in the +night it got so cold down cellar that the water froze, just as it did +in the glass bottle out on the back porch. + +"Then the ice swelled up, and it was so strong that it burst the +strong iron pipe, splitting it right down the side." + +"But why didn't the water spurt out when I came down cellar earlier +this morning?" asked Mamma Blake. "It did not leak then." + +"I suppose it was still frozen," answered her husband. "But when the +furnace fire became hotter it melted the ice in the pipe and that let +the water spurt out. But the plumber will soon fix it." + +Hal and Mab watched the plumber, to whom their papa telephoned. He had +to take out the broken pipe, and put in a new piece. Afterward Hal +looked at the pipe that had been split by the ice. + +"Why it's just as if gun-powder blew it up," he said, for once he had +seen a toy cannon that had burst on Fourth of July, from having too +much powder in it. + +"Yes, freezing ice is just as strong as gunpowder, only it works more +slowly," said Daddy Blake with a smile. "Powder goes off with a puff, +a flash and a roar, but ice freezes slowly." + +"Oh, but when are we going skating?" asked Mab, as she and her brother +started for school, a little later that morning. + +"As soon as I can find a frozen pond," said Daddy Blake with a smile. + +Well wrapped up, and wearing warm gloves, Hal and Mab went to their +lessons. It was so cold that wintry day, though there was no snow, +that they ran instead of walking. Running made them warm. + +"Is my nose red?" asked Mab, when they were near the school. + +"Oh, it's awful red!" cried Hal. "Is mine?" + +"As red as a boiled lobster!" laughed Mab. "Let's run faster!" + +So they ran, and soon they were in a glow of warmth. + +"Oh!" cried Mab, as she and her brother entered the school-yard, "we +forgot to ask Daddy why we get warm when we run." + +When the two children reached their house, after lessons were over for +the day, they found their father waiting for them. He had his skates +over his shoulder, dangling from a strap, and he had Hal's and Mab's +in his hand. + +"Come, we are going to look for the frozen pond!" he said. + +Then Hal and Mab forgot all about asking why they became warm when +they ran. They cried out joyfully: + +"Oh, Daddy is going to take us skating! Daddy is going to take us +skating!" + +Across the fields they went, and in a little while they came to a +place where was a pond, in which they used to fish during the summer. +But now as they looked down on the water, from the top of a small +hill, they saw that the pond was all frozen over. A sheet of ice +covered it from edge to edge. + +"Oh, now we can skate!" cried Hal in delight, "Now we can try our new +skates." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +POOR ROLY-POLY + + +"Come on!" cried Mab, as she started to run down the slope of the hill +toward the frozen pond. "Come on, Hal!" + +"Hold on!" called Daddy Blake. "Wait a minute, Mab! Don't go on the +ice yet!" + +Mab stopped at once. So did Hal, who had just begun to run. You see +the children had gotten into the habit of stopping when their uncle +called: "Wait a minute and I'll give you a penny," so it was not hard +for them to do so when their father called. + +"Why can't I go on the ice?" asked Mab, + +"I must first see how thick it is," answered Daddy Blake. + +"What difference does that make?" Hal wanted to know. + +"Oh, a whole lot," said Mr. Blake. "If the ice is too thin you will +break through, and go into the cold water. We must be very careful, I +will see if it is thick enough." + +Mab waited for her father and Hal to come to where she was standing. +Roly-Poly did not wait, however. Down he rushed to the frozen pond. + +"Oh, come back! Come back!" cried Mab. "You'll go through the ice, +Roly!" + +But Roly-Poly paid no attention. Out on the slippery ice he ran, +and then he turned around and, looking at Daddy Blake and the two +children, he barked as loudly as he could. + +Roly-Poly was a queer dog that way. Sometimes he would mind Mab, and +then, again, he would not. + +"I guess the ice is thick enough to hold up Roly," said Mr. Blake. "It +doesn't need to be very strong for that, as Roly is so little." + +"How thick must it be to hold us up?" Hal wanted to know. + +"Well, on a small pond, ice an inch thick might hold up a little boy +or girl," explained Mr. Blake. "But not very many children at a time. +On a large pond the ice should be from six to eight inches thick to +hold up a crowd of skaters." + +"Oh, does ice ever get as thick as that?" asked Hal. + +"Oh, yes, and much thicker. On big lakes it gets over two feet thick +in cold weather," Mr. Blake said. "Then it will hold up a whole +regiment of soldiers, and cannon too. Ice is very strong when once it +is well frozen. But always be sure it is thick enough before going +on." + +"How are you going to tell?" asked Mab. + +"By cutting a little hole through the ice," her father told her. "You +can look at the edges of the hole and tell how thick the ice is. We +will try it and see." + +With the big blade of his knife, Mr. Blake cut and chipped a hole in +the ice, a little way from shore. Hal and Mab stayed on the ground +watching their father, but Roly-Poly ran all about, barking as hard as +he could. + +"I guess he is looking for something to bury in a hole," spoke Hal. +But Roly could not dig in the hard ice, and the ground was also frozen +too solidly for him to scratch. So all the little poodle dog could do +was to bark. + +"There we are!" cried Mr. Blake, after a bit. "See, children, the ice +is more than six inches thick. It will be safe for us to skate on!" + +Hal and Mab ran to look into the little hole their father had cut in +the ice. It went down for more than half a foot, or six inches, like a +well you dig in the sand at the seashore. But no water showed in the +bottom of this hole in the ice. + +"The ice is good and thick," said Mr. Blake. "It will hold up all the +skaters that will come on this pond." + +But the children and their Daddy were the only ones there now. Mr. +Blake showed Hal and Mab how to put on their skates. He made the +straps tight for them, and then put on his own. + +"Now we will see how well you can skate," said Mr. Blake. + +"I can!" cried Hal. "I've watched the big boys do it. I can skate!" + +"It's just like roller skating," said Mab, "and I can do that, I +know." + +"Well, you may find it a little different from roller skating, Mab," +her papa answered with a laugh. + +"Here I go!" cried Hal. He struck out on the ice, first with one foot, +and then with the other, as he had been used to doing on his roller +skates. And then something happened. + +Either Hal's feet slid out from under him, or else the whole frozen +surface of the pond tilted up, and struck him on the head. He was not +quite sure which it was, but it felt, he said afterward, as though the +ice flew up and struck him. + +"Oh, be careful!" cried Daddy Blake, as he saw Hal fall. But it was +too late to warn the little boy then. + +"Oh, he's hurt!" exclaimed Mab with a little sob, as she saw that her +brother did not get up. + +Daddy Blake skated over to Hal, but there was no need of his help. For +Hal got up himself, only he was very careful about it. He did not try +to skate any more. He did not want to slip and fall. + +"Are you hurt?" asked Mr. Blake. + +"N-n-no; I guess not," Hal answered slowly. "The ice is sort of soft, +I guess." + +"No quite as soft as snow, however," laughed Daddy Blake. "Now you had +better not try to skate until I take hold of your hand. I will hold +you up. Come, Mab, well take hold of hands and so help each other to +stand up." + +Roly-Poly was rushing here and there, filled with excitement, and he +was barking all the while. He was having fun too. + +"Now strike out slowly and carefully," directed Daddy Blake to the +children. "First lean forward, with your weight on the left foot and +skate, and then do the same with your right. Glide your feet out in a +curve," and he showed them how to do it, keeping hold of their hands, +Mab on one side and Hal on the other. In this way they did not fall +down. + +Slowly over the ice they went. + +"Oh, we are skating!" cried Mab, in delight. + +"Isn't it fun!" shouted Hal. + +"At least you are beginning to skate," said Mr. Blake. + +Roly-Poly kept prancing around in front, running here and there, and +barking louder than ever. + +"Don't get in our way, Roly!" called Mr. Blake with a laugh, "or we +might skate right over you!" + +"Bow-wow!" barked the little poodle dog. And I suppose that was his +way of saying: + +"No, I won't! I'll be good." + +Hal and Mab were beginning to understand the first simple rules of +skating. It was not as easy as they had thought--nor was it the same +as roller skating. The ice was so slippery. + +"Oh, look at Roly!" cried Hal, when they had stopped for a rest. "He's +skating, too." + +A boy who had no skates had come down to the frozen pond, and, seeing +the poodle dog, and knowing him to be Hal's pet, this boy wanted to +have some fun. He would throw a stick on the ice, sliding it along, +and Roly would race after it. He would go so fast, Roly would, that he +could not stop when he reached the stick, and along he would slide, +almost as if he were skating. + +Just as Hal called to Mab to look, Roly cook a long run and a slide. +Then, all of a sudden, there was a cracking sound in the ice. A hole +seemed to open, close to where the poodle dog was, and, a moment +later, Roly-Poly went down, out of sight, into the cold, black water. + +"Poor Roly-Poly!" cried Mab. "He's drowned!" + +Roly-Poly had gone under the ice. Hal and Mab were ready to cry. But +listen. This is a secret. Roly-Poly was not drowned! A wonderful thing +happened to him, but I can not tell you about it until the end of the +book. And mind, you're not to turn over the pages to find out, either. +That would not be fair. Just wait, and I'll tell you when the times +comes. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +FISHING THROUGH THE ICE + + +"Come on, Mab," cried Hal, to his sister. "We've got to get him out! +We've got to save Roly-Poly!" + +Letting go his father's hand, Hal started to skate toward the place +where the little poodle dog had last been seen. + +"Wait--don't go," said Mr. Blake quickly, but there was no need. For, +as soon as Hal let go of his Daddy's hands, his feet, on which were +still the slippery skates, slid out from under him, and down he went +again. + +"Oh dear!" cried Mab. "Everything is happening! Can't we save Roly, +Daddy?" + +"Yes, perhaps," he said slowly. "But we must not go too near. Roly +went down through an air hole in the ice. The ice is thin near there. +It might break with us. I will go up carefully and look." + +Telling Hal and Mab to stay together, in a spot where he knew the +ice was thick, Mr. Blake skated slowly toward the place where poor +Roly-Poly had gone under. As he came near the ice began to crack +again. Mr. Blake skated back. + +"It would be dangerous to go on," he said. "I am sorry for Roly-Poly, +but it would not be wise for us to risk our lives for him. It would +not be right, however much you love him." + +"Oh, we do love him so much!" sobbed Mab. + +"I'll get you another dog," said Mr. Blake, and then he had to blow +his nose very hard. Maybe he was crying too, for all I know. Mind, I'm +not saying for sure. + +"No other dog will be like Roly-Poly," said Hal, who was trying not to +cry. + +"I'm awful sorry I threw the sticks for him to chase after," said +Charlie Anderson, the boy who had been playing with the poodle dog +while Hal and Mab were learning to skate. + +"Oh, it wasn't your fault," said Daddy Blake. "Poor Roly! I will see +if I can break the ice around the hole. Maybe he is caught fast, and +I can loosen the ice so he can get out." Daddy Blake took off his +skates, and then, with a long piece of fence rail, while he stood on +the bank, the children's papa broke the ice around the edges of the +air hole. But no Roly-Poly could be seen. + +"Oh dear" cried Mab. "He is gone forever!" + +"Yes," spoke Hal, quietly, and then he put his arms around his little +sister. + +But don't you feel badly, children. We know something Hal and Mab do +not know, and we'll keep it a secret from them until it is time for +the surprise. + +The two Blake children were so sorry their doggie had been lost +through the ice, that their father thought it best to take them home. + +"We will have another skating lesson to-morrow," he said. "But this +shows you how dangerous air holes are." + +"What is an air hole in the ice, Daddy?" asked Hal. + +"I'll tell you," said Mr. Blake. This interested Mab, and she stopped +crying. Besides, if you cry when it's cold, the tears may freeze on +your cheeks, like little pearls, and fall off." + +"An air hole," said Mr. Blake, as he walked on home with the children, +"is a place where the ice has not frozen solidly. Sometimes it may be +because there is a warm spring in that part of the pond, or a spring +that bubbles up, and keeps the water moving. And you know moving or +running water will not freeze, except in very, very cold weather. + +"But always be careful of air holes, for the ice around them is easily +broken, and you might go through." + +"Poor Roly-Poly!" sighed Mab. "I wish he had been careful." + +"So do I," spoke Hal. + +"How would you like to go fishing through the ice?" asked Daddy Blake, +so the children would have something new to think about, and not feel +sorry about Roly. + +"Fishing through the ice?" cried Hal. "How can we do that? Aren't the +fish frozen in the winter?" + +"I saw some frozen ones down at the fish store," Mab said. + +"Well, I don't mean that kind," laughed Daddy Blake. "There are live +fish in the waters of the lakes, rivers and ponds, down under the ice. +You can not catch all kinds of fish through the ice in winter, but you +may some sorts--pickeral for instance." + +"Oh, Daddy, and will you take us fishing?" asked Mab. + +"I think I will, some day soon, if the cold keeps up," he said. + +And, surely enough he did. + +The weather was still very cold, and the ice froze harder and thicker. +Several times Daddy Blake took the children down to the pond, and +taught them about skating. They were doing very well. + +Then, one Saturday, when there was no school, Daddy Blake called out: + +"Now we'll go fishing through the ice. We'll go over to the big lake, +so wrap up well, as it is quite cold. We'll take along some lunch, and +we'll build a fire on the shore and make hot chocolate." + +"Hurray!" cried Hal. + +"Oh, how lovely!" exclaimed Mab. + +Well wrapped up, and carrying with them their fishing things, as well +as lunch, while Mr. Blake had a small axe, the little party set off +for a large lake, about two miles away. + +When they reached it, Hal wondered how they could ever get any fish, +as the water was covered with a thick sheet of ice. But Daddy Blake +chopped several holes in the frozen surface, so Hal and Mab could see +the dark water underneath. The holes however, were not large enough +for the children to fall through. + +"Now we'll fish through the ice!" said Daddy Blake. + +"Oh, I see how it's done!" exclaimed Hal with a laugh. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +LEARNING TO SKATE + + +"Now we'll bait our hooks," said Mr. Blake, when he had put the lunch, +which they had brought along, safely away in a sheltered place. "And +after that we will have a little skate practice to get warmed up, for +it is colder than I thought." + +"But if we bait our hooks, and leave them in the water, won't the fish +run away with our lines if we are not here to watch them?" asked Mab. + +"We'll fix the lines so the fish that bite will ring a little bell, to +tell us to come and take them off the hook!" replied Daddy Blake with +a laugh. + +"Oh, now I know you're fooling us!" said Hal. + +"No, really I am not," replied his father, but Mr. Blake could not +keep the funny twinkle out of his eyes, and Hal was sure there was +some joke. + +From a small satchel, in which he had put the things for fishing, Mr. +Blake took several pieces of wire. On the ends were some bits of +red cloth, and also, on each wire, a little brass bell, that went +"tinkle-tinkle." + +"Oh, they are really bells!" cried Mab, as she heard them jingle. + +"Of course they are" said her father. "Now I'll tell you what we'll +do. We'll bait our hook, and lower it into the water through a hole in +the ice. Then, close to the hole, we'll fasten one of these pieces of +wire each one of which has, on the upper end, a bell and a bit of red +cloth. + +"When the wires are stuck in the ice we'll fasten our lines to them, +and then, when the fish, down in the cold water, pulls on the baited +hook he will make the piece of red cloth flutter, and he will also +ring the bell." + +"Oh, now I see!" cried Hal. "And if we are off skating we can look +over here, and if we see the red rag fluttering we'll know we have a +bite, and can come and pull up the fish." + +"That's it," said Daddy Blake, smiling. + +"And if we don't happen to see the red rag fluttering, we will hear +the bell ring," added Mab, clapping her hands. "How nice it is to fish +this way!" + +The hooks were soon baited, and lowered into the water through the +holes in the ice Then the other end of each fish line was made fast +to a wire sticking up, with its bit of red rag, and the little brass +bell. + +"Now we'll go skating," said Daddy Blake. "The fish themselves will +tell us when they are caught. Come along." + +Hal and Mab had, by this time, learned to put on their own skates, +though of course Hal helped his sister with the straps. + +"You must begin to learn to skate by yourselves," said Daddy Blake, +after he had held the hands of the children for a time. "Don't be +afraid, strike out for yourselves." + +"But s'pose we fall?" asked Mab. + +"That won't hurt you very much," her father said. "Be careful, of +course, not to double your legs up under you, and when you tumble +don't hit your head on your own skates, or any one's else. But when +you feel that you are going to fall, just let yourself go naturally. +If you strain, and try not to fall, you may sprain and hurt yourself +more than if you fall easily. Now strike out!" + +Hal and Mab tried it. At first they were timid, and only took little +strokes, but, after a while, they grew bolder, and did very well. They +were really learning to skate. + +"Oh, look!" suddenly cried Hal. "My red rag is bobbing; I must have a +bite!" + +He started in such a hurry toward the ice-hole where his line was set +that he fell down. But he did not mind that, and was soon up again. +However, Mab, who did not stumble, teached her line first. + +"Oh dear! I haven't a bite!" she sighed, for her bell was not +jingling. + +"But I have!" cried Hal, pulling his line in. "A big one, too!" + +"I'll help you," said Daddy Blake, as he skated up to his little son, +and when Daddy had felt of the tugging line he remarked: + +"Yes, that is a large fish! Up he comes!" And he pulled up Hal's fish. + +Just as the big, flopping pickerel was hauled out on the ice, Mab +cried: + +"My bell is tinkling! My bell is tinkling! I've got a fish, too!" And +indeed her piece of wire was moving to and fro where it was stuck up +in the ice, and the bell was jingling merrily. + +"Wait, Mab, I'll help you!" called Daddy Blake, and, leaving Hal to +take care of his own fish, the children's papa went to pull in Mab's +catch. + +Her fish was not quite as large as was Hal's, but it was a very nice +one. Then Mr. Blake called out: + +"Oh ho! Now there's a bite on my line!" + +His bell jingled quite loudly, and when the string was pulled up +through the hole there was a fine, large pickerel on the hook. The +fish were placed in a basket to be taken home, after having been +mercifully put out of pain by a blow on the head. Then the hooks were +baited again. + +In a little while each one had caught another fish and then Daddy +Blake said: + +"Now we have all the fish we can use, so there is no need of catching +any more. We will practice our skating a little longer, and then go +home. For I am sure you children must be cold." + +"Oh, but aren't we going to eat the lunch we brought, before we go +home?" cried Hal. + +"I was just wondering if you would think of that!" laughed Daddy +Blake. "Yes, we will eat lunch as soon as we get a little warm by +skating around, or by running." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE SKATING RACE + + +Daddy Blake and the two children glided to and fro over the ice of the +frozen lake on their sharp steel skates. Soon all their cheeks were +red and rosy, and they felt as warm inside as though they had taken +some hot chocolate at the corner drug store. + +"Daddy," asked Hal, "what makes you warm when you run fast, or skate?" + +"It is because your heart pumps so much more blood up inside your +body," explained Daddy Blake. "Our blood is just the same to our +bodies as coal is to a steam engine. The more coal the fireman puts +under the boiler (that is if it all burn well, and there is a good +draft) the hotter the fire is, and the more steam there is made." + +"Is our blood like steam?" asked Mab, as she tried to peep down at +her red nose and cheeks. But she could not see them very well so she +looked at Hal's. + +"Well, our blood is something like steam," said Daddy Blake, with a +laugh. "That is if we didn't have any blood we could not move around, +and live and breathe, any more than an engine could move if it had no +steam. + +"You see we eat food, which is fuel, or, just what coal and wood are +to an engine. The food is changed into blood inside our bodies, and +our heart pumps this blood through our arteries, which are like steam +pipes. Our heart is really a pump, you know; a very wonderful pump." + +"My heart is pumping hard," said Hal, putting his hand over his +thumping chest. + +"Well," went on his father, "the reason for that is, that when we run, +or skate fast, our body uses more blood, just as an engine which is +going fast uses more steam than one going slowly. The heart has to +pump faster to send more blood to our arms and legs, and all over, and +whenever anything goes fast, it is warmer than when it goes slowly. + +"If you rub your finger slowly over the window-pane, your finger will +_not_ be very warm, but if you rub it back and forth as _fast_ as you +can, your finger-tip will soon be almost warm enough to burn you. + +"That is something like what happens when you run quickly. The blood +goes through your body so much faster, and your heart beats so much +harder, trying to keep up, that you are soon warm. And it is a good +thing to exercise that way, for it makes the blood move faster, and +thus by using up the old blood, you make room for new, and fresh. + +"But I guess we've had enough talk about our hearts now," spoke Daddy +Blake with a laugh. "We'll eat some lunch and then take home our +fish." + +Daddy Blake built a little fire on the shore, near the frozen lake, +and over this blaze, when the flames were leaping up, and cracking, he +heated the chocolate he had brought. Then it was poured out into cups, +and nice chicken sandwiches were passed on little wooden plates. + +"Isn't this fun!" cried Mab as she sipped the last of her chocolate. + +"Indeed it is," agreed Hal. "I'm coming skating over to this lake +every day!" + +"Well, I guess not every day," spoke Daddy Blake with a smile. "But +we'll come as often as we can, for I want you to learn to be good +skaters. And besides, there may be snow soon, and that will spoil the +ice for us." + +"Oh, I hope it doesn't snow for a long time," sighed Mab. + +"So do I!" echoed her brother. "But, if it does, we can have some +other fun. Daddy will take us coasting; won't you?" + +"I guess so," answered Mr. Blake. + +The lunch things were packed in the basket, and then Hal and Mab went +back to where the pickerel fish they had caught were left lying on the +ice. + +"Why, they're frozen stiff!" Hal cried, as he picked up one fish, +which was like a stick of wood. + +"That shows you how cold it is," said Mr. Blake. "But mamma can thaw +out the fish by putting them in water, and we can have them for dinner +to-morrow." + +"When are we coming skating again?" asked Hal as they were on their +way home. + +"Oh, in a few days," his father promised. "Meanwhile you and Mab can +practice on the pond near home, and then you can have a race." + +"Oh, good!" cried Mab. "And I'll win!" + +"Huh! I guess not!" exclaimed Hal. "Boys always win races; don't they, +Daddy." + +"Well, not always," said Mr. Blake. "And Mab is becoming a good little +skater." + +"Well, I'll win!" declared Hal. "You see if I don't!" + +The next day was too cold for the children to go skating with +their Daddy, but a little later in the week it was warmer, and one +afternoon, coming home early from the office Mr. Blake said: + +"Come on now. I hear you two youngsters have been practicing skating +on the pond, so we'll go over there and have a race." + +"Hurray!" cried Hal. + +"Oh, I do hope I win!" exclaimed Mab. + +There were not many other skaters on the ice when the children and +their father reached it Mr. Blake marked off a place, by drawing two +lines on the ice with his skate. The space between them was about as +long as from the Blake's front gate to their back fence. + +"Now, Hal and Mab," said Daddy Blake, "take your places on this first +line. And when I call 'Go!' start off. The one who reaches the other +line first will win." + +Hal and Mab took their places. They were so eager to start that they +stepped over the line, before it was time. + +"Go back," said Daddy Blake, smiling. Finally they were both evenly on +the line. The other skaters came up to watch. + +"Go!" suddenly cried Daddy Blake. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A WINTER PIC-NIC + + +Hal and Mab started off on their race so evenly that neither one was +ahead of the other. The two children had learned to skate farily well +by this time, though of course they could not go very far, nor very +fast. And they could not cut any "fancy figures" on the ice such as +doing the "grape-vine twist," or others like that. + +"I--I--I think I'm going to win," said Mab as she skated along beside +her brother. + +"You'd better--better not talk," Hal panted. "That takes your breath, +and it's hard enough to breathe anyhow, when you're skating fast, +without talking." + +"You're talking," said Mab. + +"But I'm not going to talk any more," Hal answered, and he closed his +lips tightly. + +On and on they skated, side by side. + +"Oh, Hal's going to win!" cried some of the children who had gathered +around to watch. + +"No, Mab is!" shouted a number of little girls who were her friends. +"Mab will win!" + +Sometimes Mab would be in the lead, and then Hal would come up with a +rush and pass her. + +It was not very far to the "finish line," as the end of the race is +called. + +"Oh, I do hope I get there first!" thought Mab, her little heart +beating very fast. + +"I hope I win!" thought Hal. + +And that is always the way it is in races--each one wants to be first. +That is very right and proper, for it is a good thing to try and be +first, or best, in everything we do. Only we must do it fairly, and +not be mean, or try to get in the way of anyone else. And, if we don't +win, after we have done our best, why we must try and be cheerful +about it. And never forget to say to the one who has come out ahead: + +"Well, I am sorry I lost, but I am glad you won." + +That is being polite, or, as the big folks say; when they have races, +that is being "sportsman-like," and that that is the finest thing in +the world--to be really "sportsman-like" at all times. + +"Go on! Go on!" cried Daddy Blake. "Don't stop, children! Finish out +the race!" + +But Hal and Mab were getting a little tired now, though the race was +such a short one. Gradually Hal was skating ahead. + +"Oh dear! He's going to win!" thought Mab, but, just then, all of a +sudden, Hal's skate glided over a twig on the ice, and down he went. +"Ker-bunk-o!" + +Before Mab could stop herself she had slid over the finish line. + +"Oh, Mab wins! Mab has won the race!" cried her girl friends. + +Poor Hal, who was not much hurt, I am glad to say, got up. He looked +sorrowfully at his sister who had gone ahead of him, when he stumbled. +He did want so much to win! + +But Mab was a real "sportswoman," for there are such you know--even +little girls. + +"Hal, I didn't win!" she exclaimed, skating back to her brother, "It +isn't a fair race when some one falls; is it Daddy?" + +"Well, perhaps in a real big race they would count it, even if some of +the skaters fell," he said. "But this time you need not count--" + +"Well, I'm not going to count this!" interrupted Mab. "I don't want to +win the race that way. Come on, Hal. We won't count this, and we'll +race over again!" + +Now I call that real good of Mab. Don't you? + +Hal looked happy again. He didn't even mind the bruise on his knee, +where it had hit on the ice. + +"Well, I'd be glad to race over again," Hal said. "Next time I won't +fall." + +"Very well, race over once more," said Daddy Blake. + +So Hal and Mab did, and this time, after some hard skating, Hal +crossed the finish line a little ahead of his sister. Poor Mab tried +not to look sad but she could not help it. + +"You--you won the race, Hal," she said. + +"Well, maybe I got started a little ahead of you," he replied kindly. +"Anyhow, I'm older and of course I'm stronger. Oughtn't I give her a +head-start, Daddy?" + +"I think it would be more fair, perhaps," said Daddy Blake with a +smile. He was glad his children were so thoughtful. + +"Then let's race again," suggested Hal. + +"Oh, hurrah!" cried all the other children. "Another race! That's +three!" + +This time Hal let Mab start off a little ahead of him, when Mr. Blake +called "Go!" This "head-start," as we used to call it when I was a +boy, is called a "handicap" by the big folk, but you don't need to use +that big word, unless you care to. + +"Oh, Mab is going to win! Mab is going to win!" shouted the children. +And she did. She crossed the line ahead of Hal. And Oh! how glad she +was. + +"Now we've each won a race!" cried Hal, as he helped his sister take +off her skates. + +A few days after that Daddy Blake asked the children: + +"How would you like to go on a winter picnic?" + +"A winter pic-nic!" cried Hal. "What is that?" + +"Why we'll take our skates, and a basket of lunch, and go over to the +big lake. We'll have a long skate, and at noon we'll eat our lunch +in a log cabin I know of on the shores of the lake. That will be our +winter pic-nic." + +"Oh, how fine!" cried Mab. "When may we go?" + +"To-morrow," answered Daddy Blake. + +"Oh, I'm sure something will happen!" cried Aunt Lolly. + +And something did, but it was something nice, and soon you will know +all about it. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +CUTTING THE ICE + + +Hal and Mab Blake were awake very early the next morning. Mab jumped +out of bed first and ran to the window. + +"Is it raining?" asked Hal, from his room. He put one foot out from +under the covers to see how cold it was--I mean he wanted to see how +cold the air in his room was--not how cold his foot was; for that was +warm, from having been asleep in bed with him all night. + +"No, it isn't raining," said Mab, "but it looks as if it might snow." + +"I hope it doesn't snow until we have our pic-nic on the ice," +exclaimed Hal, as he jumped out of bed, and began to dress. + +Mamma Blake was very busy cooking breakfast, and so was Aunt Lolly. +They had to get the meal and also put up the lunch for the printer +pic-nic. A large basket was packed full of good things to eat. I just +wish I had some of them now, I'm so hungry! + +"Well, are you all ready?" asked Mr. Blake of the children, after +breakfast. + +"I am, Daddy," answered Hal, pulling on his red mittens, and swinging +his skates by a strap over his shoulder. "I'm all ready." + +"And so am I," replied Mab, as she tied her cap strings under her +chin, so it would not blow away--I mean so the cap would not blow +away, not Mab's chin; for that was made fast to her face, you see, and +couldn't blow off, no matter how much wind whistled down the chimney. + +"Well, then we'll start," said Daddy Blake. Just then there came a +ring at the front door bell, and into the hall tramped Charlie and +Mary Johnson, who lived next door to the Blake family. The visitors +were warmly dressed, and Charlie had two pairs of skates slung over +his shoulder by the straps. + +"Oh, we're going on a pic-nic, Mary!" cried Mab, thinking perhaps her +little girl friend had come to ask her to go skating. + +"So are we!" exclaimed Charlie, and he smiled at Daddy Blake, who +laughed heartily. + +"Oh, how funny!" cried Hal. "Are you going to where we are going, I +wonder?" + +The Johnson children looked at Mr. Blake and giggled. + +"Yes," he answered with a smile, "they are going to the same place we +are, Hal and Mab. I invited them to go with us, as I thought you would +like company. And I guess mamma put up lunch enough for all of us; +didn't you?" he asked, turning toward his wife. + +"Indeed I did!" cried Mamma Blake. "There's a fine lunch." + +"Oh, how lovely of you to come with us!" cried Mab, as she put her +arms around Mary. + +"It's just dandy!" shouted Hal, clapping Charlie on the back. Then, as +he saw that Charlie was carrying his sister Mary's skates, Hal took +Mab's and put them on a strap with his own, saying: + +"I'll carry them for you, Mab!" + +"Thank you," she said, most politely. "You are very kind." + +"Well, do you like my little surprise?" asked Daddy Blake as they +started off toward the lake, to hold their winter pic-nic. + +"Surely we do!" answered Hal. "It's fine that you asked Mary and +Charlie to come with us." + +It was quite cold out in the air, and, as Mab had said, it did look +like snow. There were dull, gray clouds in the sky, and the sun did +not shine. But the children were happy for all that. In a little while +they reached the big frozen lake, and, putting on their skates they +started to glide over the ice. + +"We will skate about a mile, and then we will rest, and have a little +skating race, perhaps, and afterward we can eat our lunch." + +"And what will we do after that?" asked Charlie. + +"Oh, skate some more," answered Daddy Blake. "That is if you want to." + +The children had much fun on their skates. + +And once, when Charlie sat down on the ice, to punch with his knife a +hole in his strap, so that it would fit tighter, something happened. +Charlie laid down his knife, and when he went to pick it up, he found +that it had sunk down in the ice, making a little hole for itself to +hide in. + +"Oh, look here!" he cried. "My knife has dug down in the ice just like +your dog Roly-Poly used to dig a hole for a bone." + +"Poor Roly!" sighed Mab. "I wish we had him now!" + +"But he's gone," said Hal. "Well never see him again," and he looked +at Charlie's knife down in the ice. "What made it do that, Daddy?" he +asked. "What made it sink down?" + +"The knife was warmer than the ice, and melted a hole in it," +explained Mr. Blake. "The knife was warm from being in Charlie's +pocket. + +"I read once about some men who went up to the North Pole," he +continued. "They had with them a barrel of molasses, but it was so +cold at the North Pole that the molasses was frozen solid. When the +men wanted any to sweeten their coffee they would have to chop +out chunks with a hatchet. They had very little sugar and so used +molasses. + +"Once one of the men, after chopping some frozen molasses for +breakfast, forgot what he was doing, and left the hatchet on top of +the solid, frosty sweet stuff in the barrel. The next time he wanted +the hatchet to chop with he could not find it. The hatchet had melted +its way down through the frozen molasses, until it came to the bottom +of the barrel, inside, and there it stayed until all the sweet stuff +was chopped out in the spring." + +The children laughed at this funny story, and a little later they +began skating around. They had races among themselves. Hal raced with +Charlie, and once he won, and once Charlie did. But Mab, who raced +with Mary, won both times. Mab was becoming a good skater, you see. + +And such fun as it was eating lunch in the log cabin. The little +building kept off the cold wind, and Daddy Blake built a fire on the +old hearth. Hot chocolate was made; and how everyone did enjoy it! + +After lunch they all went skating again. As they glided around a +little point of land, that stuck out in the lake, Hal, who was skating +on ahead, cried out, in a surprised voice: + +"Oh, look at the men and horses on the ice! What are they doing?" + +"Cutting ice," said Daddy Blake. "Come, we will go over and see how it +is done," and away they all skated to where the men were gathering the +harvest of ice, just as farmers gather in their harvest of hay and +grain. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A COLD HOUSE + + +"Will you please show these children how you cut ice, and store it +away, so you can sell it when the hot summer days come?" asked Daddy +Blake of one of the many men who, with horses and strange machinery, +were gathered in a little sheltered cove of the lake. + +"To be sure I will," the man answered. "Just come over here and you +will see it all." + +"Oh, but look at the water!" cried Mab, as she pointed to a place +where the ice had been cut, and taken out, leaving a stretch of black +water. + +"I won't let you fall in that," promised the man. "The ice is so thick +this year, on account of the cold, that you could go close to the edge +of the hole, and the ice would not break with you. See, there is a man +riding on an ice cake just as if it were a raft of wood." + +"Oh, so he is!" cried Hal, as he saw a man, with big boots and a long +pole, standing on a glittering white ice-raft. The man was poling +himself along in the water, just as Daddy Blake had pushed the boat +along when he was spearing eels in the Summer. + +"He looks just like a picture I saw, of a Polar bear on his cake of +ice, up at the North Pole," spoke Charlie, "only he isn't a bear, of +course," the little boy added quickly, thinking the man might think he +was calling him names. The head ice man, and several others, laughed +when they heard this. + +"Now, I'll show you how we cut ice, beginning at the beginning," said +the head man, or foreman, as he is called. + +"Of course," the foreman went on, "we have to wait until the ice +freezes thick enough so we men, and the horses won't break through it. +When it is about eighteen inches thick, or, better still, two feet, we +begin to cut. First we mark it off into even squares, like those on a +checker board. A horse is hitched to a marking machine, which is like +a board with sharp spikes in it, each spike being twenty-four inches +from the one next to it. The spikes are very sharp. + +"The horse is driven across the ice one way, making a lot of long, +deep scratches in the ice, where the scratches criss-cross one another +they make squares." + +"What is that for?" Hal wanted to know. + +"That," the foreman explained, "is so the cakes of ice will be all the +same size, nice and square and even, and will fit closely together +when we pile them in the ice house. If we had the cakes of ice of all +different shapes and sizes they would not pile up evenly, and we would +waste too much room." + +"I see!" cried Mab. "It's just like the building blocks I had when I +was a little girl." + +"That's it!" laughed the foreman. "You remember how nicely you could +pile your blocks into the box, when you put them all in evenly and +nicely. But if you threw them in quickly, without stopping to make +them straight, they would pile up helter-skelter, and maybe only half +of them would fit. It is that way with the ice blocks." + +"What do you do after you mark off the ice into squares?" Charlie +Johnson asked. + +"Then men come along with big saws, that have very large teeth, and +they saw out each block. Sometimes we cut the marking lines in the ice +so deeply that a few blows from an axe will break the blocks up nice +and even, and we don't have to saw them. + +"Then, after the cakes are separated, they are floated down to a +little dock, and carried up into the store house. Come we will go look +at that store house now. But button up your coats well, for it is very +cold in this ice store house." + +The foreman led Daddy Blake and the children to a big house, five +times as large as the one where the Blake family lived. Running up to +this ice house from the ground near the lake, was a long incline, like +a toboggan slide, or a long wooden hill. And clanking up this wooden +hill was an endless chain, with strips of wood fastened across it. + +The chain was something like the moving stairways which are in some +department stores instead of elevators. Only, instead of square, flat +stairs there were these cross pieces of wood, to hold the cakes of ice +from slipping down the toboggan slide back into the lake again. + +Men would float the ice cakes up to the end of the wooden hill. Then, +with sharp iron hooks, they would pull and haul on the cakes until +they were caught on one of these cross pieces. Then the engine that +moved this endless chain, would puff and grunt, and up would slide the +glittering ice, cake after cake. + +At the top of the incline other men were waiting. They used their +sharp hooks to pull the ice cakes off the endless chain, upon a +platform of boards, and from there the cakes were slid along into the +store house, where they were stacked in piles up to the roof, there +to stay until they were needed in the hot summer, to make ice cream, +lemonade and ice cream cones. + +"Oh, but it is cold in here!" cried Mab as they went in the place +where the ice was kept. And indeed it was, for there were tons and +tons--thousands of pounds--of the frozen cakes. From them arose a sort +of steam, or mist, and through this mist the men could hardly be seen +as they stacked away the ice. The men looked like shadows moving about +in a cold fog on a frosty, cold, wintry morning. + +"Bang! Bang! Clatter! Smash! Crash!" went the cakes of ice as they +came up the incline, and slid down the long wooden chutes, where the +men hooked them off and piled them up. Pile after pile was made of the +ice, until it was stacked up like an ice berg, inside the store house. + +"Why doesn't the ice melt when the hot summer comes?" asked Hal. + +"Because this building keeps the hot sun off the ice," explained the +foreman. "Very little heat can get in our ice house, and it takes heat +to melt ice. Of course some of it melts, but very little. Then, too, +the building has two walls. In between the double walls is sawdust, +and that sawdust helps to keep the heat out, and the cold in. It is +like a refrigerator you see. Ice melts very slowly in a refrigerator +because the cold is kept in, and the outside heat kept out." + +"Oh, but it's cold here!" cried Mab shivering. "Let's go outside." And +outside something very strange happened. + +The children never would have believed it had they read it in a book. +But as it really happened to them they knew that it was true, no +matter how strange it was. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A GREAT SURPRISE + + +"How do you get the ice out of this big house when you want it in the +summer time?" asked Hal, as the foreman led them along the wooden +platforms out of the big, cold storehouse. And how much warmer it was +outside; even if the sun did not shine, than it was in the ice house. +The children were glad to come out. + +"We load the ice from here into freight cars," the man explained. +"See, the ice house is built in two parts, with a passage-way between. +And is this passage is a railroad track. The engine backs a freight +car in here, the big doors of the car are opened, and the ice is slid +in on wooden chutes, something like the iron chutes the coal man uses. +Then, when the car is full, it is pulled down to the city in a long +train, with other cars." + +"And then the icemen come with their wagons, get the ice and bring it +to us," finished Mab. "I've seen them." + +"That's right, little lady!" said the foreman with a laugh. And +sometimes ice comes to the city by a boat, instead of in freight cars, +and the men with wagons go down to the boat-dock to get the cold, +frozen cakes. And now you have seen how ice is cut in winter, and +stored away until we need it in the summer." + +"My!" exclaimed Hal, as he looked up at the big ice store-house. +"There must be enough ice in there for the whole world!" + +"Oh, no indeed!" cried Daddy Blake. "No enough for one city. And +besides this ice, which is called natural, because Jack Frost and +Mother Nature make it, there is other ice, called artificial. That is +what is made by machinery." + +"Why, can anybody make ice by machinery?" asked Mab in surprise. + +"Oh, yes, even on the hottest day in summer," her papa told her. "But +it takes a lot of machinery. It is done by putting water into small +metal tanks, and then by taking all the warmth out of the water by +dipping the tanks into a big vat of salt and water which is made very +cold by something called ammonia. It is too hard for you to understand +now, but when you get older I will explain. Now I think we had better +be skating home," said Daddy Blake. + +As they walked down to the frozen lake, there was a barking sound from +a small shed under which was an engine, that hauled up the ice cakes. +Out from the shed rushed a little dog, spotted black and white, and +straight for the Blake children he rushed, barking and wagging his +tail so that it almost wagged off. + +"Look out!" cried Daddy Blake. + +"Don't be afraid!" called the engineer, laughing. "He's so gentle he +wouldn't hurt a baby!" + +And how strangely the dog was acting! He would jump up first on Hal, +and then on Mab, trying to lick their faces and hands with his red +tongue. + +"Oh dear!" cried Mab, who was a little bit frightened. + +"He won't hurt you!" exclaimed the engineer. "Here, Spot!" he called. +"Leave the children alone. Be good, Spot!" + +But the dog would not mind. He jumped up on Hal, barking as loudly as +he could, and wagging his tail so hard that it is a wonder it did not +drop off. The animal seemed wild with delight. + +"Why! Why!" cried Mab, as she looked carefully at the dog when he +stood still a moment to rest after all the excitement. "That dog looks +just like our Roly-Poly, only Roly was white and not spotted black and +white," said Mab. + +"Well, when I got this dog he was all white," explained the engineer. +"He got spotted black by accident." + +"I wonder if that could be Roly?" spoke Daddy Blake thoughtfully. +"Here, Roly-Poly!" he called. "Come here, sir!" + +In an instant the dog made a jump for Daddy Blake, barking joyfully, +and almost turning a somersault. + +"I believe it is Roly!" shouted Hal. "It's our dog!" + +"But how could it be?" asked Mab. "Roly was lost under the ice." + +"And that's just where I got this dog," the engineer explained. "Out +from under the ice. One day, after the first freeze this winter, I was +Balking along a little pond. I came to a thin place in the ice, and +looking through, from the shore where I stood, I saw a little white +dog down below, just as if he were under a pane of glass. + +"I broke the ice with a stick and got him out. I thought he was dead, +but I took him home, thawed him out, gave him some hot milk, and soon +he was as lively as a cricket. And I've had this dog ever since. When +I came here to work at ice cutting I brought him with me." + +"But you said he was pure white when you got him out," said Daddy +Blake wonderingly. + +"Yes, that's right," answered the ice engineer. "So he was. And how he +got spotted was like this. I was blacking my boots one day, and I left +the bottle of black polish on a low bench. The dog grabbed it, playful +like, and the black stuff spilled all over him. That's how he got +spotted. He was worse than he is now, but it's wearing off." + +"Then I'm sure this is our Roly-Poly!" cried "Oh, you dear Roly!" she +cried, and the spotted poodle dog tried to climb up in her arms and +kiss her, he was so glad to see her. + +"I believe it is Roly," said Daddy Blake. "It is all very wonderful, +but it must be our Roly." + +"Well, if he's yours, take him," said the engineer kindly. "I always +wondered how he got under the ice. But of course he could not tell +me." + +"We were skating, the children and I, one day," explained Daddy Blake. +"Poor Roly slipped through an air hole in the ice. Then he must have +floated down the pond underneath the ice, until he came to another +thin place, where you saw him." + +"I guess that's it," the engineer agreed. "He was almost drowned and +nearly frozen when I found him. But I'm glad he's all right now, and +I'm glad the children have him back." + +"Oh, and maybe we aren't glad!" cried Mab. "Aren't we, Hal?" + +"Well, I guess!" he cried. "The gladdest ever!" + +Roly-Poly was happy too. He was so glad that he did not know whom to +love first, nor how much. He raced back and forth from the children to +Mr. Blake, and then over to the kind engineer, who had saved his life. + +"Oh, let's hurry home!" cried Mab. "I want to show mamma and Aunt +Lolly and Uncle Pennywait that Roly-Poly is still alive." + +And so Daddy Blake and the children skated down to the end of the +lake, Roly-Poly running along with them. He had barked his good-byes +to the engineer, and Daddy Blake and Hal and Mab had thanked the nice +man over and over again. + +"Don't fall through any more air holes, Roly!" cautioned Hal, as he +skated along with Charlie, while Mab glided slowly at the side of +Mary. + +"Bow-wow!" barked Roly, which meant, I suppose, that he would be very +careful. + +Soon they were all safely home, and Roly-Poly barked louder than ever, +and almost wagged off his tail, sideways and up and down. + +"Oh, how wonderful!" cried Aunt Lolly when she heard the story. "I +knew something would happen. Something wonderful has happened." + +And so it had. And it was really wonderful that Roly had floated down +beneath the ice, and that the engineer had come along just in time to +get him out alive. + +And so Roly came back, just as I told you he would. In a few weeks the +black spots wore off him, and he was all white again, and as lively +and frisky as ever, hiding anything he could find, and barking and +wagging his tail like anything. + +"Won't all the boys and girls be surprised when they see our dog back +again?" asked Mab. + +"I guess they will," agreed Hal. "It is just like a fairy story; isn't +it?" + +"Oh, it's better than a fairy story, for it's true!" exclaimed Mab. +"If it was a fairy story we would wake up and Roly-Poly wouldn't be +here. Oh! I am so glad!" + +Hal and Mab had many more days of skating on the pond with Daddy; +Blake. And then, one morning, when they woke up, the ground was deeply +covered with white snow. + +"No more skating right away!" cried Daddy Blake, "The ice has gone to +sleep under white blankets." + +"But we can have other fun!" said Hal. + +"Lots of it!" cried Mab, joyfully. "Oh we'll have more fun!" + +And what fun they had with Daddy Blake I will tell you about in the +next book, as this one is all filled up. So I will say good-bye to you +for a little while, only a little while, though. + +THE END + +The next volume in this series will be called "Daddy Takes Us +Coasting." + +It will be about Santa Claus and Christmas. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DADDY TAKES US SKATING*** + + +******* This file should be named 10220.txt or 10220.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/2/10220 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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