Lily had planned to sleep in on her day off.

  She had been waking up at dawn every single day for weeks!

  And…

  As lots of early risers have discovered…

  Once it becomes a habit, it’s hard to sleep in!

  She woke up at the same time as normal.

  Even earlier than her parents!

  They were sleeping off the big feast they had had the night before…

  Lily’s semi-pet Mr. Cat was snoozing in his cat bed, and her ghosts relaxing, drinking ghost coffee!

  Lily’s village didn’t have real coffee, but they had asked Lord Hades, the God of Death, to hook them up!

  “Good morning, Mr. Ghosts!” Lily whispered.

  “Good morning, Lily,” the ghosts whispered back.

  Mr. Cat’s ear flicked, but he didn’t wake up.

  Cats need a lot of sleep!

  He had no problem sleeping in!

  In fact, he’d been working extra hard the last week, since he met Lily…

  The french fries were nice, but he needed his beauty sleep.

  Lily tip-toed out of her room, and over to the kitchen.

  She decided to make breakfast for her parents this morning!

  She cooked up some porridge, and made scrambled eggs and bacon!

  Sizzle sizzle pop!

  She even tore up the bacon to make a happy face on each plate!

  And, soon enough, she heard her Mama and Papa waking up.

  Knock knock knock.

  She knocked on their bedroom door.

  “Mama, Papa, I made breakfast!”

  “Come on in, Lily,” her Mama said, and Lily opened the door.

  Her Mama was helping her Papa sit up, putting the pillows behind his back.

  Lily turned, grabbed the plates and forks, and brought them in.

  “Papa! Breakfast in bed!”

  “Ah, thanks, Lily. My favorite!”

  Lily’s Papa smiled, and ate every last bite!

  “That was delicious, Lily. Thank you!”

  Lily smiled. She loved making her parents happy! Her Mama gathered up all the dishes and took them to the kitchen.

  “Lily, I’ll clean up the dishes.”

  “Okay!”

  It was mid-morning now, and Lily had the whole day ahead of her!

  “Mama, I’m going on a walk!”

  Sally paused a moment.

  For so long, Lily had started each morning saying she was “going to work.”

  To say she was going on a walk…

  Sally smiled.

  “Okay, take care, Lily. Make sure you come back for lunch.”

  “Yes Mama!”

  Lily stepped outside into a nice, sunny summer day.

  The sky was blue, there was a gentle breeze, and there was even butterflies fluttering about!

  Lily took a deep breath, and set off!

  And, of course, trailing behind her, were three ghosts!

  She was still being haunted, after all!

  And one ghost in particular couldn’t relax…

  It was Ray Croc!

  “Come on, Lily, at least write down the plan for franchising, so you can have it ready…”

  But, Lily wanted to take a day off!

  “Lay off her, Ray,” said Rich.

  “Yeah, relax, Ray,” said Mac. “She’s got two new restaurants she’s setting up this next week. There’ll be plenty of time to set up the franchise system later…”

  Rich and Mac were more relaxed.

  Things were going good.

  Why struggle when things were going good?

  They knew how to relax and enjoy success!

  Ray, on the other hand…

  Was an opportunity-seizing kind of guy!

  If there was room to expand, he wanted to do it as fast as possible!

  Lumberville and Grassy Hill…

  Two more villages that Lilyburgers could expand into!

  He was itching to get started…

  That was what he was sent down to help Lily do!

  But Lily…

  Was getting tired of working and business!

  It had been a whirlwind!

  A month of chores every single day!

  And then two weeks of setting up Lilyburgers!

  Stolen story; please report.

  She was grateful.

  She really was!

  But man…

  She needed a day off!

  So…

  She ignored Ray!

  She tuned him out!

  Rich and Mac were right, there would be time for that later.

  She had the whole rest of her summer vacation ahead of her.

  Today it was time to relax!

  So, she walked over to the park!

  It wasn’t a very big park, but it had all the best stuff!

  There was a jungle gym, and a swing set!

  She hadn’t ridden on the swing set since school ended…

  Since her father got hurt in the accident…

  So she got to the park nice and early, and…

  Yes!

  The swing set was open!

  She dashed over, as fast as her little legs would take her!

  “Woohoo!”

  A few other people were in the park.

  This early, there was Mr. Thomas, who was a big fan of birds.

  He was a birdwatcher!

  He was there with his wife, Miss Jessica, who was tending to the flower patch.

  She loved gardening!

  She had the best garden in town, in front of her house, but she also took care of the flower garden at the park.

  They were both retired, and had given Lily lots of chores to do.

  Lily hopped on the swing, and started swinging!

  “Oh, good morning, Lily!” Jessica said.

  “Good morning Miss Jessica, good morning Mr. Thomas!” Lily replied.

  Swing swing swing!

  “We’ve missed you the last few weeks. Is your father doing alright?”

  “Papa’s fine!” Lily answered. “I’ve been busy with Lilyburgers!”

  “Lilyburgers?”

  Mr. Thomas was busy watching the birds and making notes in his notebook, so it was mainly Miss Jessica who talked to the young girl on the swingset.

  “Yeah, I started a restaurant!”

  “Oh, how nice,” Jessica said, not paying it too much mind.

  She went to the market early in the mornings, and left before lunchtime.

  So she hadn’t seen the restaurant open yet!

  She didn’t take what Lily was saying too seriously.

  But that was okay!

  The main thing was that Lily and her family were doing alright.

  Thomas and Jessica had been worried when Lily stopped coming by asking for chores to do…

  But, she seemed fine now.

  Jessica turned back to her pruning, and soon enough…

  More children showed up!

  A boy Lily’s age took the other swing on the swing set, and then some older kids started climbing on the jungle gym.

  “Hi Bobby!”

  “Hi Lily!”

  Bobby was in her class in school.

  “Wow, I haven’t seen you in a long time, Lily!”

  “Yeah, I’ve been working!” Lily said proudly as she swung even higher!

  They had started competing to see who could swing the highest!

  “Working?” Bobby said, pumping his legs. “But it’s summer vacation!”

  Bobby was of the mind that summer vacation meant one hundred percent playtime!

  School was work, and play was play!

  “Yeah, but today’s my day off!” Lily said.

  “Huh…”

  Today was Bobby’s Dad’s day off, too.

  Most days he had to go work in the mine, and his Mama had to work in the market.

  Today was their day off.

  Lily was doing that, too?

  Bobby shuddered.

  He sure didn’t want to do that!

  He wished every day could be summer vacation.

  He was, of course, an eight-year-old boy.

  Kids his age should be playing!

  And so they did.

  Lily had fun and relaxed for the first time in weeks.

  And, eventually, the mayor showed up!

  “Oh, there you are, Lily!”

  “Hi George!”

  “Hi Mr. Mayor!” all the other kids said.

  He was a village celebrity!

  “What do you say to some putting practice this afternoon?” George asked.

  Lily hopped off the swingset.

  That reminded her, it was nearly lunchtime!

  “Sure!”

  She looked at all the other kids.

  They looked super jealous!

  “Can the other kids come, too?”

  The mayor looked at all the kids.

  They were giving him big puppy-dog eyes!

  He frowned a little. “Do you kids even know what putting is?”

  “Nope!” they all chorused. “But we want to play, too!”

  And, the mayor…

  Shrugged!

  “Sure, why not. I’m sure the country club has some extra putters. We’ll meet at the fountain at one o’clock.”

  “Okay!”

  Her plans set, Lily went home and had lunch.

  It was leftovers, but they were still yummy!

  And she had another slice of pie!

  Full of sugar and energy, she skipped all the way to the city square, and once all the other kids arrived, the mayor took them to the country club golf course!

  There, he and Lily taught the kids about putting on the special putting practice spot, and they started playing!

  It was perfect for the little kids, since it was a lot easier to hit the ball just a little on the putting green, rather than do a full big swing on the driving range.

  Some of the kids really liked it.

  And others…

  Got bored!

  So they left and went to go play elsewhere.

  Eventually, there was a handful of other kids competing with each other, getting better and better!

  Jim, the golf course manager, smiled as he watched them.

  More players meant more members for the country club!

  He was watching the next generation of golfers get started…

  Excellent!

  And the mayor was learning a lot as he taught the children!

  Teaching someone something is a great way to practice it!

  Around mid-afternoon, the kids had had enough, and wanted to go exploring!

  They headed out into the meadow and played around until it was time to go home for dinner.

  The kids were super happy they got to play with Lily for once!

  Some of them had even thought she had moved to another village…

  And Lily was happy to play with them again!

  She had been too busy to notice, but she had missed seeing her friends.

  “Bye bye, Lily!”

  “Come play with us again soon!”

  “Bye bye everyone! I’ll come out and play again on my next day off!”

  Lily skipped home, beaming.

  And the Gods and Goddesses in heaven smiled down on her.

  It was good to see her being a normal eight-year-old girl for once!

  All work and no play isn’t good for children!

  They need playtime, too!

  And so Lily went home, and helped her mother with dinner, and played checkers with her Papa!

  He was really good now, after playing with John the day before!

  And so, she went to bed a little early, all tuckered out from her playing.

  But, far away, in distant lands…

  A herd of cattle went missing from a ranch…

  A farm full of dairy cows went on strike because they were unhappy…

  A country full of wheat fields went into revolt after their queen told them to only eat cake…

  And a certain Crown Prince met with a shady, sleazy businessman, who wanted to open a bunch of casinos…

  Trouble was brewing!