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 herbrother Hal came running out of the school yard, where he had beenplaying with some other boys. Mabel was waiting for him to walk homewith her as he had promised.
"So's your's red, too, Mab!" Harry said. "It's as red--as red as someof 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!" shewent on. "It's the cold that makes 'em so. It's very cold to-day, andsoon it will be winter, with lots of snow and ice! Oh! I just lovewinter!"
"Come on, Hal!" called Mab. "Let's hurry home before it gets anycolder!"
"Let's run!" suggested Hal. "When you run you get warm, and you don'tmind the cold."
"What makes us get warm when we run?" his sister inquired, as she tookhold 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 withwhom 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 sofast that you could hardly tell which were her curls and which was herhair ribbon.
"Huh! Does your father know what makes a steam engine go?" askedSammie.
"Sure he does!" said Hal. "And he told us about it once, too; didn'the, Mab?"
"Yes, he did," the little girl answered. "I know, too. It's hot waterin the boiler that makes it go. The hot water swells up, and turnsinto steam, and the steam pushes on the wheels, and that makes theengine 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 toask him what--what--makes it lightning!"
"And then will you tell us?" asked Mab, for she and Hal wanted to knowabout everything they saw.
"Yes, I'll tell you," promised Sammie. "And we'll ask Daddy Blake whatmakes us warm inside when we run," went on Hal, "and then we'll tellyou that, Sammie."
The children ran home from school, and, thought it was cold, for itwas almost winter now, they did not mind it. Their noses got more andmore red, it is true, but they knew when they were in the house, nearthe 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 theirhouse.
As they reached it they saw their mamma and their Aunt Lolly out inthe 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 theflowers. Take only the small pots, and don't drop them, or get anydirt on your clothes."
"Oh, I'm sure something will happen if you let the children carry anyof the flowers!" cried Aunt Lolly, who was a dear, fussy little oldlady. "They'll drop them on their toes, or spill the dirt on thefloor--or something."
"Oh, I guess not," laughed Mamma Blake. "Anyhow we need help to getall the plants in before dark. There is going to be a very heavyfrost, and everything will freeze hard to-night. It will be verycold!"
"Is that why you are bringing in the plants, mamma?" asked Mab.
"Yes, so they will not freeze and die," Mrs. Blake answered. "Flowersfreeze 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 moreplants than he carried in, though he did manage to drag one pot to thesteps.
Besides, Roly-Poly was always running off to look for a clothespin,or something like that, to bury under the earth, making believe, Isuppose, that it was a bone.
"The ground will soon be frozen too hard for you to dig in it withyour paws, Roly-Poly," said Mamma Blake, when it was nearly dark, andall the plants had been brought into the warm kitchen. "Come, nowchildren," she called. "Wash your hands, and supper will soon beready. Then Daddy will be here, and he will shake down the furnacefire, 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 thefront 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 getwarm inside when we run." Hal was very curious.
"Ah, here we are!" cried Mr. Blake, with a jolly laugh, as he came inrubbing 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 ifit freezes enough I will tell you a secret I have been keeping forsome 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 herpapa.
CHAPTER II
THE ICE IN THE BOTTLE
Hal and Mab were so excited at hearing their father speak about a newsecret, that they could hardly eat their supper. There were so manyquestions they wanted to ask. But they managed to clear their plates,and then, when Mr. Blake had on his slippers, and had put plenty ofcoal 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 whatmakes us warm when we run," added Hal. "Sammie Jones is going to askhis father what makes it lightning in a thunder storm."
"My goodness me sakes alive, and some peanut candy!" cried Daddy Blakewith 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 tellyou," said Mr. Blake. "It must be freezing cold, or the secret will beof no use."
Daddy Blake went to the door, outside of which hung an instrumentcalled a thermometer. I guess you have seen them often enough. Athermometer is a glass tube, fastened to a piece of wood or perhapstin, and inside is a thin, shiny column. This column is mercury, orquicksilver. 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 colderweather than you ever have where you live, unless you live at theNorth Pole. Up there it gets so cold that sometimes alcohol willbecame as thick as molasses, and then it is not of any use in athermometer. 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 lookingat the thermometer.
"Not quite," his father answered. "But the mercury is going down thetube."
"What makes it go down?" asked Mab.
"Well, let me think a minute, and I'll see if I can make it simpleenough so you can understand," said Daddy Blake.
Those of you who have read the other "Daddy" books know how manythings Mr. Blake told his children, and what good times Hal and Mabhad with him. He was always taking them somewhere, and often one orthe 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 tripin
the steam cars. But, wherever it was, Hal and Mab were always readyto 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 becauseRoly-Poly, their poodle dog--
But there, I'm not going to spoil it by telling you, when you mightwant to read the book for yourself.
In the second volume, called "Daddy Takes Us Fishing," I made up astory about how Hal and Mab went to the seashore cottage, and learnedto catch different kinds of fish; even the queer, pinching crabs, thatturned 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 andMab were accidentally taken away in one of the circus wagons, and howthey traveled all night. And the next day they rode on the elephant'sback, and also on a camel's and they went in the big parade. Oh! itwas just wonderful the adventures they had!
Hal and Mab lived with their papa and mamma, and Aunt Lolly, in a finehouse in the city. But they often went to the country and to otherplaces where they had good times. In the family was also UnclePennywait. That wasn't his real name, but the children called him thatbecause 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 gavethem. 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 AuntLolly'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 sometime, "have you thought of a way to tell us what makes the shiny stuffin the--in the--in the--Oh! I can't say that big word!" she finishedwith a sigh.
"The mercury in the thermometer!" laughed Daddy Blake. "You want toknow what makes it go down? Well, it's the cold. You see cold makesanything get smaller and shrink, and heat makes things swell up, andget larger. That's why the steam from hot water swells up and makesthe engine go, and pull the cars.
"And in hot weather the mercury swells, puffs itself out and creepsup inside the little glass tube. In winter the mercury gets cold, andshrinks down, just as it is doing to-night."
"But will it get cold enough so you can tell us the secret?" Halwanted to know, most anxiously.
"Perhaps," said his father. "We will try it and see. I will fill abottle 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 disappointedtones.
"That won't be long," laughed her father. "You can hardly keep youreyes open now. I guess the sand man has been here. Go to bed, and itwill soon be morning. Then, if there is ice in the bottle, I'll tellyou the secret."
Daddy Blake took a bottle, and filled it with water. He put the corkin 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 pushout 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 theywere sleepy. They wanted to stay up and watch the water in the bottlefreeze. But Mamma Blake soon had them tucked snugly under the covers.
Then Daddy Blake fixed the furnace fire for the night, as it wasgetting colder and colder. Next he opened a package he had broughthome with him. Something inside jingled and clanked, and shone in thelamplight as brightly as silver.
"What have you there?" asked Aunt Lolly.
"That's the children's secret," answered Daddy Blake, as he wrappedthe 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 warmlydressed!" 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 quicklybrought 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 theboard on which it had been set, was a solid, clear piece of ice, justthe shape of the glass bottle itself.
"Oh, somebody broke our bottle!" cried Mab. "Now we can't hear thesecret!"
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 brokeit."
"How could it?" Hal wanted to know.
"I told you last night," said Daddy Blake, when the children were atbreakfast table a little later, "that heat made things get larger, andthat cold made them get smaller. That was true, but sometimes, as yousee now, freezing cold makes water get larger. That is when it is coldenough to make ice.
"As long as there was only water in the bottle it was all right, theglass was not broken. But in the night it got colder and colder. Allthe warmth was drawn off into the cold air. Then the water froze, andswelled up. The ice tried to push the cork out of the bottle, just asyou would try to push up the lid of a box if you were shut up insideone."
"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 liftout the cork, it swelled to the sides, instead of to the top, andpushing out as hard as it could, it broke the bottle. The glass fellaway, 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 hepassed Hal his third slice of bread and jam. "If the cracks in a greatrock became filled with water, and the water froze, the swelling ofthe ice would split the great, strong stone.
"There is scarcely anything that can stand against the swelling offreezing ice. If you filled a big, hollow cannon ball with water, andlet 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 milkmanraises the tin top on the bottle. That gives the frozen milk a chanceto swell up out of the top, and saves the bottle from cracking."
"One morning last winter," said Mamma Blake, "when we had milk bottleswith the pasteboard tops, the milk froze and there was a round bit offrozen milk sticking up out of the bottle, with the round pasteboardcover 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 havepushed itself up, after it was frozen, and would have stuck out of thebottle neck, like a round icicle."
"But what about our secret?" asked Hal. "Is it cold enough for you totell us about it?"
"I think so," answered Daddy Blake, with a queer little twinkle in hiseyes. "As long as the water in the bottle was frozen, the pond willsoon be covered with ice," he said. "And we need ice to make use ofthe 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 paperbundles. 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 laidhis package down on the floor, while he searched through his pocketsfor his knife.
Just then Roly-Poly came into the breakfast room, barking. He sawHal's package on the floor, and, thinking, I suppose, that it must bemeant for him to play with, the little poodle dog at once began todrag it away. Though, as the ground was frozen, I don't know how hewas 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 apair!"
"Ha! That's what I thought they were, when Daddy talked so much aboutice and freezing," said Hal.
He had managed, in the meanwhile, to get his bundle away fromRoly-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 mymouth 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 easilytell that they did.
"And Daddy's going to take us skating; aren't you?" asked Hal as hemeasured 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 tellyou.
"Yes, I'll take you skating, and show you how to stand up on theice--that is as soon as it is thick enough on the pond to make itsafe, and hold us up," promised the children's father.
Just then Mamma Blake came running up from down the cellar. She wasmuch excited.