Howard Roger Garis

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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?" ”

“ 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!" ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”