using it correctly.

This can be very easily proved to the satisfaction of any one.
Take the case of the small boy who boasts of his muscle. He is
conscious of an increasing strength in the muscles of his arm not
because he has failed to use these muscles but because he has used
them continually, causing a faster-than-ordinary development.

You can readily imagine that I looked forward to my "vacation"
with keen anticipation, for I had never been up in the northwest
and I was full of stories I had read and ideas I had formed of its
wonders.

The trip, lasting two weeks, did me scarcely any good at all. The
most I can say for it is that it quieted my nerves and put me in
somewhat better physical condition, which a couple of weeks in the
outdoor country would do for any growing boy.

But this trip did not cure my stammering, nor did it tend to
alleviate the intensity of the trouble in the least, save through
a lessened nervous state for a few days. Today, after twenty-eight
years' experience, I know that it would be just as sensible to say
that a wagon stuck in the soft mud would get out by "resting"
there as it is to say that stammering can be eradicated by
allowing the vocal organs to rest through disuse.

Shortly after my return from the trip to the northwest, my father
died, with the result that our household was, for a time, very
much broken up. For a while, at least, my stammering, though not
forgotten, did not receive a great deal of attention, for there