"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 glide over the ice.
"We will skate about a mile, and then we will rest, and have a little skating race, perhaps, and afterward 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."