I reckon I need it.

Why not soon ?" "Wouldn't it be better to wait awhile ?" she asked.

"We do not know each other--let alone care--" "Columbine, I've fallen in love with you." he declared, hotly.
"Oh, how could you!" cried Columbine, incredulously.
"Why, I always was moony over you--when we were kids," he said.

"And now to meet you grown up like this--so pretty and sweet--such a--a healthy, blooming girl....

And dad's word that you'd be my wife soon--_mine_--why, I just went off my head at sight of you." Columbine looked up at him and was reminded of how, as a boy, he had always taken a quick, passionate longing for things he must and would have.