Lets start with a look at "safe height". Under normal circumstances, you would tend to retract the gear once there is no realistic possibility of putting the aircraft back down again. If this really is a short strip requiring a maximum performance take-off, the chances are that this point will be reached fairly rapidly after the wheels leave the ground. So that eliminates one reason for keeping them down.
After you have taken off, you generally want to gain height. Height does many things for you, including expanding your options in the event of an Engine Failure.
By leaving your gear down, you are decreasing the rate at which you climb, and therefore extending the period of time during which your options are severely limited by an Engine Failure. The fact that Fixed-Gear Cherrytree drivers live with this problem should not cloud your judgement. There is no honour in copying them
The extention of that argument is that when the engine
does fail, the last thing you want dangling out of the bottom of your aircraft is the landing gear (note also the problems with the Arrow's auto-extend functionality) Gear kills your glide performance.
I would simply opt to brief your passengers about the possible alarm ahead of departure (which you should do anyway), and get the aircraft cleaned up (flaps and all) at the earliest possible time after take-off. If the terrain permits, get the nose down and speed up to a point at which the flaps can be retracted. We are not talking about many knots in something like an Arrow.
Bear in mind that in addition to height, the other thing you want is speed, and you won't get a lot of that with 25 degrees of flap and gear hanging off you.
-2Donkeys
[This message has been edited by 2Donkeys (edited 28 March 2001).]