Days Off

"A DAY OFF" said my Uncle Peter, settling down in his chair before the open wood-fire, with that air of complacent obstinacy which spreads over him when he is about to confessand expound his philosophy of life, -"a day off is a day that a man takes to himself.""You mean a day of luxurious solitude," I said, "a stolen sweet of time, which he carriesaway into some hidden corner to enjoy alone, -a little-Jack-Horner kind of a day?""Not at all," said my Uncle Peter; "solitude is a thing which a man hardly ever enjoys byhimself. He may practise it from a sense of duty. Or he may take refuge in it from otherthings that are less tolerable. But nine times out of ten he will find that he can't get a reallygood day to himself unless he shares it with some one else; if he takes it alone, it will be aheavy day, a chain-and-ball day, -anything but a day off.""Just what do you mean, then?" I asked, knowing that nothing would please him better thanthe chance to discover his own meaning against a little background of apparentmisunderstanding and opposition."I mean," said my Uncle Peter, in that deliberate manner which lends a flavour of deepwisdom to the most obvious remarks, "I mean that every man owes it to himself to havesome days in his life when he escapes from bondage, gets away from routine, and doessomething which seems to have no purpose in the world, just because he wants to do it.""Plays truant," I interjected."Yes, if you like to put it in that objectionable way," he answered; "but I should rathercompare it to bringing flowers into the school-room, or keeping white mice in your desk, orinventing a new game for the recess. You see we are all scholars, boarding scholars, in theHouse of Life, from the moment when birth matriculates us to the moment when deathgraduates us. We never really leave the big school, no matter what we do. But my point isthis: the lessons that we learn when we do not know that we are studying are often thepleasantest, and not always the least important. There is a benefit as well as a joy in findingout that you can lay down your task for a proper while without being disloyal to your duty. Play-time is a part of school-time, not a break in it. You remember what Aristotle says: 'ascholoumetha gar hina scholazom