“He’s the one I want myself, so you needn’t think you’ve got ahead of me there. The only question is, how shall we manage it? Shall we ask him, or shall we run away with him?”
“Run away with him,” said Billy, half in surprise and half in assent.
“Suppose,” said Mr. Prescott, “that you go out into the garden this morning, and stay there till you’ve figured that out.”
Then, just as though he were giving an order to one of his men, he added, as he rose from the table:
“You may report to me at noon.”
Before the morning was over, Billy had decided that figuring things out was very much harder than going on errands that other people had planned.
He sat in the summer house till he was tired. Then he walked around all the paths. But settle it he would, for Uncle John must never, never lose a chance like that.
Settle it he did, and made his report:
“We could tell him, the night before, that there was something special that I wanted to ask him, and that he could come here at nine o’clock and take his time about getting back to work——”
“That,” interrupted Mr. Prescott, “will hit the case exactly. I’ll see that he takes his time about getting back.”