ed, and be ready to begin
again the next day.

In the morning the mother felt a little anxious and asked timidly: "Do
you believe you can make it work again today, just as well as
yesterday?"

"Yes, indeed and better," said the daughter. "It is too much fun not to
go on with it."

After breakfast the mother with a little roguish twinkle, said: "Well,
what do you think you will do to amuse yourself to-day, Alice?"

"Oh! I think--" and then they both laughed and Alice started off on her
second day's "vacation."

By the end of a week she was out of that tired rut and having a very
good time. New ideas had come to her about the school and the children;
in fact, from being dead and heavy in her work, she had become alive.

When she found the old tired state coming on her again, she and her
mother always "took a vacation," and every time avoided the tired rut
more easily.

If one only has imagination enough, the helpfulness and restfulness of
playing "take a vacation" will tell equally well in any kind of work.

You can play at dressmaking--play at millinery--play at keeping shop.
You can make a game of any sort of drudgery, and do the work better for
it, as well as keep better rested and more healthy yourself. But you
must be steady and persistent and childlike in the way you play your
game.

Do not stop in the middle and exclaim, "How silly!"--and then slump
into the tired state again.

What I am telling you is nothing more nor less than a good healthy
process of self-hypnotism. Really, it is more the attitude we take
toward our work that tires us than the work itself. If we could only
learn that and realize it as a practical fact, it would save a great
deal of unnecessary suffering and even illness.

We do not need to play vacation all the time, of course. The game might
get stale then and lose its power. If we play it for two or three days,
whenever we get so tired that it seems as if we could not bear it--play
it just long enough to lift ourselves out of the rut--then we can "go
to work again" until we need another vacation.

We need not be afraid nor ashamed to bring back that childlike
tendency--it will be of very great use to our mature minds.

If we try to play the vacation game, it is wiser to say nothing about
it. It is not a game that we can be sure of sharing profitably either
to ourselves or to others.

If you find it works, and give the secret to a friend, tell her to play
it without mentioni