CHAPTER X CUTTING THE ICE

 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 mittens¹, and swinging his skates by a strap² over his shoulder. "I'm all ready."

 

"And so am I," replied Mab, as she tied her cap strings³ 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 slung⁴ over his shoulder by the straps⁵.

 

"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 heartily⁶.

 

"Oh, how funny!" cried Hal. "Are you going to where we are going, I wonder?"

 

The Johnson children looked at Mr. Blake and giggled⁷.

 

"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 glide⁸ over the ice.

 

"We will skate about a mile, and then we will rest, and have a little skating race, perhaps, and afterward⁹ 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 chunks¹⁰ with a hatchet¹¹. 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 hearth¹². Hot chocolate was made; and how everyone did enjoy it!

 

After lunch they all went skating again. As they glided¹³ 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 gathering¹⁴ the harvest of ice, just as farmers gather in their harvest of hay and grain.

1 mittens   

不分指手套

参考例句：

• Cotton mittens will prevent the baby from scratching his own face. 棉的连指手套使婴儿不会抓伤自己的脸。
• I'd fisted my hands inside their mittens to keep the fingers warm. 我在手套中握拳头来保暖手指。

2 strap   

n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎

参考例句：

• She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊带以便站稳。
• The nurse will strap up your wound.护士会绑扎你的伤口。

3 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

4 slung   

抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往

参考例句：

• He slung the bag over his shoulder. 他把包一甩，挎在肩上。
• He stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder. 他站起来把枪往肩上一背。

5 straps   

n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

参考例句：

• the shoulder straps of her dress 她连衣裙上的肩带
• The straps can be adjusted to suit the wearer. 这些背带可进行调整以适合使用者。

6 heartily   

adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很

参考例句：

• He ate heartily and went out to look for his horse.他痛快地吃了一顿，就出去找他的马。
• The host seized my hand and shook it heartily.主人抓住我的手，热情地和我握手。

7 giggled   

v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The girls giggled at the joke. 女孩子们让这笑话逗得咯咯笑。
• The children giggled hysterically. 孩子们歇斯底里地傻笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 glide   

n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝

参考例句：

• We stood in silence watching the snake glide effortlessly.我们噤若寒蝉地站着，眼看那条蛇逍遥自在地游来游去。
• So graceful was the ballerina that she just seemed to glide.那芭蕾舞女演员翩跹起舞，宛如滑翔。

9 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

10 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

11 hatchet   

n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀

参考例句：

• I shall have to take a hatchet to that stump.我得用一把短柄斧来劈这树桩。
• Do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet.别用斧头拍打朋友额头上的苍蝇。

12 hearth   

n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面

参考例句：

• She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来，在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
• She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里，打开电灯。

13 glided   

v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔

参考例句：

• The President's motorcade glided by. 总统的车队一溜烟开了过去。
• They glided along the wall until they were out of sight. 他们沿着墙壁溜得无影无踪。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。