with her dolls is really doing the same thing, only that she has a
symbol for each of her imaginary companions.

But although an imaginative child is much easier to teach later on,
and although he does not trouble you with the incessant nagging
"What shall I do now?" the mother whose idea of good conduct is
"keeping quiet" will find the unimaginative child much easier to
care for. He is very much less active and therefore "less
troublesome." This explains why this priceless gift of imagination
has so often been discouraged by parents and teachers. But they did
not know that they were actually _harming_ the child by so
discouraging him, or, let us hope, they would not have chosen the
easier way. For, after all, we are not looking for the easiest way
of getting along with children, but for the best, and the best for
them will prove in the end to be the best for us.

It must certainly try your patience, when you are tired, at the end
of a day's work, to have Harry refuse to come to be put to bed
because you called him "Harry"; and he replies, perhaps somewhat
crossly: "I am not Harry, I told you. I am little Jack Horner, and I
have to sit in my corner." But no matter how hard it may seem, do
not get discouraged. Once you are fully aware of the importance of
what seems to be but silly play, you will add this one more to your
many sacrifices, and find that it will bring returns a hundredfold.
And, after all, as in so many other problems, when you resolve to
make the sacrifice, it turns out to be no sacrifice. For, once you
approach the problem in an understanding spirit, the flights of the
child's imagination will give you untold pleasure.

Another reason why imagination has been suppressed by those who are