"I am afraid the ice is all melted, mother," said Bobby.
"Come with me and we will see," said father.
So they went to the ice house. Father climbed on top of the mountain of sawdust. Bobby climbed after him.
Father dug some of the sawdust off, then said, "Now you may dig, Bobby."
Bobby began to scoop the sawdust off. Pretty soon his hand touched something cold. He dug some more and then came to a piece of shiny silvery ice.
Father lifted it out. There was a large cake of glittering ice just as they had put it in last winter.
"Now we'll wash the sawdust off," said father.
So they stopped at the well and washed it all clean, and then broke it into pieces. Part of it they took to mother to keep the butter cool; part of it to John to freeze the ice cream.
When the ice cream was frozen and Bobby was eating a dish of it, father said, "Well, Bobby, who made the ice cream to-day?"
"I see now," said Bobby. "We could not have had it on this hot day if Prince and Daisy had not drawn the heavy loads of ice last winter."