"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."
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.
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.
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.
"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.
"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.