"Wait—don't go," said Mr. Blake quickly, but there was no need. For, as soon as Hal let go of his Daddy's hands, his feet, on which were still the slippery skates, slid out from under him, and down he went again.
"Oh dear!" cried Mab. "Everything is happening! Can't we save Roly,
Daddy?"
"Yes, perhaps," he said slowly. "But we must not go too near. Roly went down through an air hole in the ice. The ice is thin near there. It might break with us. I will go up carefully and look."
Telling Hal and Mab to stay together, in a spot where he knew the ice was thick, Mr. Blake skated slowly toward the place where poor Roly-Poly had gone under. As he came near 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.