Daddy Takes Us Skating | Page 3

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