and she would have laughed if laughing had been possible.

"I tell you the work has tired me so that I cannot stand it, and you
ask me to go back and get rest out of it when I am ready to die of
fatigue. Why don't you ask me to burn myself, on a piece of ice, or
freeze myself with a red-hot poker?"

"But," the answer was, "it is not the work that tires you at all, it
is the way you do it;" and, after a little soothing talk which
quieted the overexcited nerves, she began to feel a dawning
intelligence, which showed her that, after all, there might be life
in the work which she had come to look upon as nothing but slow and
painful death. She came to understand that she might do her work as
if she were working very lazily, going from one thing to another
with a feeling as near to entire indifference as she could
cultivate, and, at the same time, do it well. She was shown by
illustrations how she might walk across the room and take a book off
the table as if her life depended upon it, racing and pushing over
the floor, grabbing the book and clutching it until she got back to
her seat, or, how she might move with exaggerated laziness take the
book up loosely, and drag herself back again. This illustration
represents two extremes, and one, in itself, is as bad as the other;
but, when the habit has been one of unnecessary strain and effort,
the lazy way, practised for a time, will not only be very restful,
but will eventually lead to movement which is quick as well.

To take another example, you may write holding the pen with much
more force than is needful, tightening your throat and tongue at the
same time, or you may drag your pen along the paper and relieve the
tendency to tension in your throat and tongue by opening your mouth