Daddy Takes Us Skating | Page 2

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