For a few minutes longer the six little Bunkers remained looking at the big mass of ice—ice in the middle of summer. Then as the torch was burning out and as it was chilly after the warm outdoors, Mrs. Bunker told the children to go to the front of the cave. “But we’ll come back and get some of the ice to make ice cream,” stated Russ. “Yes,” agreed Farmer Joel. As he had said, the storm did not last long. Soon the black clouds rolled away, the thunder and lightning ceased, and the sun came out, warmer than before. Out of the ice cave rushed the children, merrily shouting and laughing. “Be careful now!” called their mother. “The woods are very wet!” But dry places were found under thick evergreen trees, and there the six little Bunkers played until it was time to go home. “And now for the ice!” cried Russ, as the wagon was driven up close to the entrance to the cave. “I want to break off a chunk!” cried Mun Bun. But it was decided best not to let the smaller children go into the ice cave while pieces were being broken off to take to the farmhouse for ice cream. So Russ and Rose were the only ones allowed to see Farmer Joel, Daddy Bunker, and Adam North break off pieces of ice with heavy sticks of wood. Out to the wagon the chunks were carried. There they were covered with straw to keep them from melting too much. “Now for some ice cream!” cried Russ, as they drove home. “I don’t believe you could find ice in the summer time in many places, could you?” he asked. “Well, no,” his father told him. “Not every place has an ice cave, though they are not as rare as you might suppose. Sometimes, in deep, rocky glens where the sun seldom shines, I have seen ice as late as the end of May. But I never saw a real ice cave before.” “A polar bear could live in that cave, couldn’t he?” asked Mun Bun on the way home. “Yes, it might for a little while,” said Farmer Joel, “but I guess it would miss the ocean. Polar bears need salt water to swim in, as well as ice chunks to keep them cool.” “I hope no polar bear comes to live in that cave while we’re here,” remarked Margy. “Don’t worry, darling!” laughed her mother. “None will.” There was plenty of the ice left when the farmhouse was reached. Russ and Laddie took it from the wagon and cracked it in burlap bags, while Farmer Joel brought out some coarse salt with which to mix it. Salt always causes ice to melt faster, and it is only when ice melts and gives out the cold locked up in it that ice cream can be made. Norah soon had the freezer full of a mixture of sugar, cream and some sliced bananas, since the children liked that flavor, and in a little while Russ and Laddie were turning the handle. By supper time the ice cream was frozen, and for dessert they had a dainty dish made from ice brought in the middle of summer from the dark cave. The six little Bunkers thought it quite wonderful.