She went in the door and when the children said "good morning," and some of them seemed glad to see her, she said to herself: "Why, they seem to know me; I wonder how that happens?" Occasionally she was so much amused at her own consistency in keeping up the game that she nearly laughed outright. She heard each class recite as if she were teaching for the first time. She looked upon each separate child as if she had never seen him before and he was interesting to her as a novel study. She found the schoolroom more cheerful and was surprised into perceiving a pleasant sort of silent communication that started up between her pupils and herself. When school was over she put on her hat and coat to go home, with the sense of having done something restful; and when she appeared to her mother, it was with a smiling, cheerful face, which made her mother laugh outright; and then they both laughed and went out for a walk in the fresh air, before coming in to go to bed, 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.