with him, and the lad came to know each wild crag, and crowning fortress,
and bend in the river where strong men with spears and bows and arrows
used to lie in wait. In imagination Gustave repeopled the ruins and
filled the weird forests with curious, haunting shapes. The Rhine reeks
with history that merges off into misty song and fable; and this folklore
of the storied river filled the day-dreams and night-dreams of this
curious boy.

But all children have a vivid imagination, and the chief problem of
modern education is how to conserve and direct it. As yet no scheme or
plan or method has been devised that shows results, and the men of
imagination seem to be those who have succeeded in spite of school. In
Gustave Dore we have the curious spectacle of Nature keeping bright and
fresh in the man all those strange conceptions of the child, and
multiplying them by a man's strength.

The wild imaginings of Gustave only served his father and mother with
food for laughter; and his erratic absurdities in making pictures
supplied the neighbors' fun.

But actions that are funny in a child become disturbing in a man; he's
cute when little, but "sassy" when older.

Gustave, however, did not put away childish things. When he had reached
the age of indiscretion--was fourteen, and had a frog in his throat, and
was conscious of being barefoot--he still imagined things and made
pictures of them. His father was distressed, and sought by bribes to get
him to quit scrawling with pencil and turn his attention to logarithms
and other useful things; but with only partial success.