Then, and not until then, did Shirley return to the house. Throwing off her wet garments, she crept into bed when, tired and worn out, she closed her eyes and slept.
CHAPTER III.—THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY.
Shirley Willing was a typical product of the little town of Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky; and at the time this story opens had just passed her fifteenth year. She was the one child of Christopher Willing, a prosperous farmer and horseman, who owned an extensive place on the Bethlehem pike some three or four miles from the little city.
Being an only daughter, she was naturally somewhat spoiled, although she and her father would have resented such an implication. Nevertheless, spoiled she was, as all were aware except these two. Shirley was slight and slender, with a wealth of auburn hair and cheeks like roses. All her life she had been athletically inclined, and for the past two years—ever since she had been attending the Blue Grass Seminary—she had indulged in outdoor sports continually.
The Blue Grass Seminary was one of those schools in which the chief object was to produce not only cultured and educated young women, but physically perfect ones as well. While the course of study was on a par with all first-class schools, the management did not believe that the students should spend all their time over their books.
“Give the girls a practical education,” was the theory of the principal, and both he and his assistants endeavored in every way to enable the girls under their care to practice in the open the theories taught in the schoolroom.
Much time was also devoted to athletics in the Blue Grass Seminary, but there were no hard and fast rules as to what branch of athletics each pupil should take up. Shirley Willing’s great hobby and chief diversion was horseback riding. She was an expert horse-woman at fifteen and could ride anything, as she had proved more than once.
Besides having a well-kept farm, Mr. Willing also owned a good “string” of blooded race horses, and there was no novelty in one of them being winner in many exciting races. It was this kind of horse that Shirley most enjoyed riding.
Shirley’s particular chum and bosom friend was Mabel Ashton, likewise the daughter of a prosperous Kentuckian. Colonel Ashton was easily the most prominent man in many respects in Bourbon County. Mabel, who was a few months older than Shirley, was equally well known among the younger set. The girls had been friends almost since they were babies, which was only natural because of the close relationship between their families.
Another bond of sympathy between the girls was that both had lost their mothers when a few months old.