THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS ON THE WATER.

CHAPTER I.—PLANNING A TRIP.

“Dad, we want to take a trip.”

The speaker was Shirley Willing, a typical Kentucky girl, slender of figure, vivacious of manner, and extremely pretty. With her father, she stood on the big, sunny front porch of the Willing farmhouse. As she again was about to address her father, a second young girl, who, it could be seen at a glance, was of about Shirley’s years, joined them.

This was Mabel Ashton, Shirley’s particular friend and life chum. Shirley greeted her with a smile, and Mr. Willing’s face also wrinkled pleasantly.

“I was just telling Dad that we want to take a trip this summer,” explained Shirley.

Mabel smiled.

“We have talked it all over,” she agreed, “and we just want to go some place.”

“Where?” asked Mr. Willing briefly.

“Why, we—we—want to go to—to—where is it we want to go, Shirley?” asked Mabel in some confusion.

“We hadn’t decided on that yet, Dad,” laughed Shirley. “But we don’t want to stay here on this old farm all summer.”

“And what are you going to do with both your old Dads—leave them behind?” asked Mr. Willing seriously.

“We would like to have you go with us, Dad, but we know you won’t.”

“Why won’t we?”

“Well, I—we,—I—you never have gone with us.”

“It’s never too late to mend our ways,” declared her father dryly. “Perhaps we shall this time.”

Both girls clapped their hands, and scampered about the porch eagerly. At last Shirley stopped her antics, and standing directly before her father, took him by the coat with both hands.

“Do you mean it, Dad?” she asked.

Mr. Willing nodded.

“Yes. Ashton and I have decided that the next time you two youngsters go away from home we are going with you. When you are by yourselves you get into too much mischief. Now where is it you want to go?”

“We haven’t the slightest idea,” was the reply.

Mr. Willing turned to Mabel.

“You call your father out here and we’ll talk this thing over,” he told her.

Mabel hastened to obey, and while she is searching for her father, we shall take time to introduce Shirley Willing and Mabel Ashton more fully to the reader.

The two girls had been friends ever since they could remember. Born and raised within a few doors of each other in the little town of Paris, Bourbon county, Kentucky, they had been inseparable companions from the time they were able to walk. This friendship was strengthened by the fact that their fathers had been bosom friends before them.

While the girls were still young, Shirley’s mother died, and a short time later Mr. Willing purchased a large farm on the Bethlehem Pike, three miles from town. It was less than a year later that Mabel’s mother passed into the great Beyond, and Mr. Ashton bought a farm adjoining that of his old friend. And here they had lived ever since.

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.

“Mr. Willing, Shirley and I want to have a talk with you,” was the reply.

“H-mm-m,” muttered the colonel, “must be something you two want. Have you succeeded in twisting Willing around your fingers?”

“The idea, Dad!” exclaimed Mabel. “You know neither Shirley nor I would think of trying to do a thing like that.”

Colonel Ashton grinned.

“Wouldn’t you?” he asked dryly. “I’m not so sure of that.”

Father and daughter made their way to the front porch, where Shirley and her father were deep in conversation. Colonel Ashton dropped into a chair, and Mabel sat down at his feet.

“Ashton,” said Mr. Willing, “these girls say they want to go some place. What do you think about it?”

Mr. Ashton was silent for some moments. He did not seem to be surprised.

“Where do they want to go?” he asked at length.

“We don’t know, Dad,” said Mabel. “We just want to take a trip.”

“And,” Shirley broke in, “my Dad says you and he might come with us.”

Mr. Ashton looked at his old friend in surprise.

“You say that, Willing?” he demanded.

“Yes, Colonel, I did. Why not, eh? You and I are getting along in years and have earned a vacation. I’m agreeable, if you are.”

“I don’t know but you are right,” was the slow reply. “I guess I am well enough to travel. I’ll go.”

Mabel jumped quickly to her feet, and hugged him. Shirley performed a similar operation on her father.

“Then,” said Mr. Willing, disengaging himself at last, “the only question to be settled is, where shall we go?”

“This is a pretty sizeable country, Willing,” said the colonel, “I guess there are plenty of places to go.”

“I had thought of Atlantic City,” said Mabel.

“And what had you thought of?” demanded Mr. Willing of Shirley.

“Well,” was the reply, “there were two things I wanted to do, and I don’t know which I shall choose.”

“Let’s hear them,” said Mr. Willing.

“You know, Dad, ever since Mabel and I went away with the Glee Club, we have both been anxious to take a trip on one of the big ocean steamers. That is one thing I would like to do.”

“And where would you like to go?”

“Any place. Across