r mother. The daughter
got a little irritated and snapped out:---

"Why do you say such a foolish thing as that, Mother? You know as well
as I that I could not leave my work to-day."

"Don't be cross, dear. Stop a minute and let me tell you what I mean. I
have been thinking about it and I know you will appreciate what I have
to say, and I know you can do it. Now listen." Whereupon the mother
went on to explain quite graphically a process of pretense--good,
wholesome pretense.

To any one who has no imagination this would not or could not appeal.

To the young woman of whom I write it not only appealed heartily, but
she tried it and made it work. It was simply that she should play that
she had commenced her vacation and was going to school to amuse herself.

As, for instance, she would say to herself, and believe it: "Isn't it
good that I can have a vacation and a rest. What shall I do to get all
I can out of it?

"I think I will go and see what they are doing in the grammar school.
Maybe when I get there it will amuse me to teach some of the children.
It is always interesting to see how children are going to take what you
say to them and to see the different ways in which they recite their
lessons."

By the time she got to school she was very much cheered. Looking up she
said to herself: "This must be the building."

She had been in it every school day for five years past, but through
the process of her little game it looked quite new and strange now.

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 b