worth more. No nurse can tell when this method of passing the
weary hours will be required of her, as it is almost certain that
a patient of intelligence will ask for some mental refreshment.

Another pleasant way to pass the long hours of convalescence, is
by playing games with your patient. I am sure no training school
for nurses has added the study of cribbage, pinochle, bezique,
chess, checkers, backgammon, or dominos to its curriculum. All
these are two-handed games, the playing of which will help the
convalescent to forget himself and his past illness and present
weakness. The nurse, if she knows only one game that is unfamiliar
to the patient, gives him new thoughts while she teaches him, and
it is quite astonishing how much pleasure such simple things can
give both to teacher and pupil. I would suggest that nurses in
their club houses or homes could profitably fill some vacant
evenings practising these two-handed games. I am sure they would
never regret the time so spent.

If the convalescent is a woman, the means of amusing her are more
varied and more congenial perhaps. In addition to reading aloud
and playing games, there is the vast realm of "fancy work," where
most women feel at home. It is a pity, so few women nowadays know
anything about knitting, crochetting or tatting,--many do not even
know which is which. A lady asked me very innocently, not long
ago, how I could tell the difference between knitting and
crochetting! Since Irish crochet has returned to favor, however,
many have once more taken up their crochet needles. The nurse who
can deftly turn her hand to these dainty arts, and can teach them
to her patients, or any of the patient's family, has the means of
making herself a very acceptable companion, apart from her nursing