ear the ice began to crack
again. Mr. Blake skated back.

"It would be dangerous to go on," he said. "I am sorry for Roly-Poly,
but it would not be wise for us to risk our lives for him. It would
not be right, however much you love him."

"Oh, we do love him so much!" sobbed Mab.

"I'll get you another dog," said Mr. 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." Daddy Blake took off his
skates, and then, with a long piece of fence rail, while he stood on
the bank, the children's papa broke the ice around the edges of the
air hole. But no Roly-Poly could be seen.

"Oh dear" cried Mab. "He is gone forever!"

"Yes," spoke Hal, quietly, and then he put his arms around his little
sister.

But don't you feel badly, children. We know something Hal and Mab do
not know, and we'll keep it a secret from them until it is time for
the surprise.

The two Blake children were so sorry their doggie had been lost
through the ice, that their father thought it best to take them home.

"We will have another skating lesson to-morrow," he said. "But this
shows you how dangerous air holes are."

"What is an air hole in the ice, Daddy?" asked Hal.

"I'll tell you," said Mr. Blake. This interested Mab, and she stopped
crying. Besides, if you cry when it's cold, the tears may freeze on
your cheeks, like little pearls, and fall off."

"An air hole," said Mr. Blake, as he walked on home with the children,
"is a place where the ice has not frozen solidly. Sometimes it may be
because there is a warm spring in that part of the pond, or a spring
that bubbles up, and keeps the water moving. And you know moving or
running water will not freeze, except in very, very cold weather.

"But always be careful of air holes, for the ice around them is easily
broken, and you might go through."

"Poor Roly-Poly!" sighed Mab. "I wish he had been careful."

"So do I," spoke Hal.

"How would you like to go fishing through the ice?" asked Daddy