When Shirley reached the age of fourteen, she conceived the idea of going away to school. Mabel announced that she was going with her. The objections of their fathers they soon overcame, and at last found themselves installed as pupils of the Bluegrass Seminary in Lexington. Here, because of their kind-heartedness and their many good deeds, they were soon among the most popular girls of the school.
Being athletically inclined, they were prominent in all branches of girls’ sports. Their chief pleasure was horseback riding, in which art there were few more proficient. In fact, Shirley once had saved her father’s fortune by carrying the Willing colors to victory in the great Kentucky Derby, as related in “The Bluegrass Seminary Girls on Vacation.”
Naturally modest, they nevertheless had been made, soon after their arrival at the seminary, members of the Glee Club, for it was found that both possessed voices of rare excellence. During the second Christmas vacation, with other members of the Glee Club, they had toured the larger eastern cities, and through entertainments had lifted a large debt that threatened the end of the Seminary.
Both girls also possessed great courage, as they had proved on more than one occasion, and they had had many exciting adventures, one of the most important of which was the settling of a mountain feud in which they had faced great danger unflinchingly, as related in “The Bluegrass Seminary Girls on Motorcycles.”
The summer vacation now had just begun. Shirley and Mabel had returned from Lexington two days before this story opens. At the Willing place they found Mr. Ashton, who had been very ill for some years, and had been making his home with his friend while his daughter was away at school.
But now Mr. Ashton was greatly improved, as Mabel found to her great joy. He was gaining daily and recovering lost weight and strength.
Mabel, searching for her father in response to Mr. Willing’s request, found him in the sitting room. She went up to him and took him by the hand.
“Come on Dad,” she said.
Mr. Ashton—“colonel” he was always called by his friends—allowed himself to be pulled toward the door.
“What’s up?” he asked.