Nevertheless the idea persisted and grew. It came to the point of rehearsal. Before he fell asleep that very night, Bobby had ready cut and dried a half-dozen different ways in which to ask the question, and twice as many methods of leading up to it. In the darkness, and by himself, he felt very bold and confident. The next morning, however, even after he had succeeded in sequestrating Celia from her companions, he found it impossible to approach the subject. The bare thought of it threw him to the devourings of a panic terror. This new necessity tore him with fresh but delicious pains. He felt the need of finding out whether she cared for him as he had never conceived a need could exist; yet he was totally unable to satisfy it. By comparison the former misery of jealousy seemed nothing. Bobby lived constantly in this high breathless state of delight in Celia; and misery in the condition of his love for her. The Fuller boys and Angus saw him no more; the little library was neglected; the wood-box half the time forgotten; and the arithmetic, always a source of trouble, tangled itself into a hopeless snarl of which Bobby's blurred mental vision could make nothing. All of his spare time he spent at his toy printing press, trying over and over for a perfect result--unblurred, well-registered, well aligned--in the shape of calling cards for "Miss Celia Carleton." As soon as they were done to his satisfaction, he wrapped them in a clumsy package, and set out for the Ottawa, followed, as always, by Duke. He found Celia alone in a rocking chair. "Why didn't you come down this morning?" she asked him at once. Bobby held up the package and looked mysterious. "This," said he. "Oh! what is it?" she cried, jumping up. "I made it," said Bobby. "What is it?" insisted Celia. "Show it to me." But Bobby thrust the package firmly into his pocket. "Up past our house there's a fine sand-hill to slide down," said he, "and we got a fine fort over the hill, and I know where there's a place you can climb up on where you can see 'most to Redding." "Show me what you've got!" pleaded Celia. "I will," Bobby developed his plan, "if you'll come up and play in the fort." "All right," agreed Celia in a breath; "I'll tell mamma I'm going. And I'll hunt up the others." "I don't want the others to go," announced Bobby boldly. She calmed to a great stillness, and looked at him with intent eyes. "All right," she agreed quietly after a moment. They walked up the street together, followed by the solemn black and white dog. The shop windows did not detain them, as ordinarily. At the fire-engine house they turned under the dense shade of the maples. But by the end of the second block said Bobby: "We'll go this way." He was afraid of encountering Angus, or perhaps the Fuller boys.