“There is a hole in the roof of the cave—the roof that is made of rocks,” explained the farmer. “You can see where some water is pouring in now from the rain.” The children looked and saw drops falling on top of the pile of ice.
“Not as much water comes in here in the summer as in winter,” explained Farmer Joel; “for now the holes in the rocky roof are filled with bushes and leaves. But in the winter, when the leaves dry out, there is quite an opening. Rain and melted snow runs in and it is so cold here that a big, solid chunk of ice is frozen.”
“But what makes it stay here when summer comes?” asked Rose.
“Because the warm sun cannot shine inside the cave to melt the ice,” explained her father.
“That’s right,” added Farmer Joel. “Some years we can come here even in the middle of August and chop out chunks of ice.”
“I should think you could make ice cream,” said Russ.
“Sometimes we do,” replied Mr. Todd.
“Oh, could we do that now?” cried Rose eagerly.
“We haven’t any freezer nor the things to make ice cream with,” objected her mother.
“Couldn’t we take some of the ice home in the wagon?” Russ wanted to know.