freeze at haphazard, but as soon as it begins to freeze it instantly branches out into star shapes.
What is ice? It is cold solid water. When water turns from a liquid to a solid it forms figures and liberates heat. The same thing takes place with saltpeter when it changes from a liquid to a solid form: heat is liberated. The same with salt, the same with cast-iron, when it cools down from its melted to its solid form.
When anything turns from a liquid to a solid, it liberates heat and begins to form crystals. But when it changes from a solid to a liquid then it absorbs heat; its coldness disappears and its crystals melt.
Take melted iron and let it cool; take hot dough and let it cool; take slaked lime and let it cool—heat is produced. Take ice and melt it cold is produced. Take saltpeter, salt, or anything else which is soluble, and put it into water—cold is produced. So that when you want to make ice-cream, you melt salt and water.
CHAPTER V
bad air
1
One festive day, at the village of Nikolskoye, the people had gone to mass. On the estate[1] were left the cattle-woman, the village elder,[2] and the hostler.
The cattle-woman went to the well after water. The well was in the yard itself. She was drawing up the bucket, but failed to hold it. The bucket slipped from her, struck against the side of the well, and broke the rope.
The cattle-woman returned to her cottage, and said to the elder:—
