“Well,” said Shirley with a smile, “it is always best to be prepared for the unexpected.”
“Well, I suppose you will have it your own way,” said Mabel.
Shirley smiled.
“In this, yes,” she replied.
The two days passed slowly for both girls, but at length the time came to go. The first thing in the morning, making sure that Jimmy was in the stable, Shirley made her way to his room and appropriated one of his old suits—one that she was sure he would not miss. This she packed in her suitcase.
“I shall have to buy a wig in Cincinnati,” she told Mabel.
Clara met the girls at the train, and they were soon whirled to her Walnut Hills home in a large automobile. There they were to remain until the following afternoon, when Mabel would accompany Shirley downtown.
The next day, shortly before five o’clock, Shirley slipped her dress on over her suit of boy’s clothes, and leaving Clara behind in spite of many protests, the two girls took the street car down town. On Fourth Street they found a little store where Shirley was fortunate enough to find a wig of the right shade.
In a secluded corner in the railroad station, when there was no one near, Shirley quickly stripped off her dress and stood revealed in her boy’s clothing. Donning wig and cap, she handed Mabel the discarded dress to put into the satchel brought for that purpose.
“Now,” said Shirley, “go back to Clara’s and, under some pretext or other, wait on the porch for me after every one has gone to bed. I’ll not come until I am sure they have all retired.”