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 the ocean."

"Well, we won't do that," said Colonel Ashton. "This European war makes it too risky. We might be sunk by one of those German submarines."

"Right, Colonel," agreed Mr. Willing. He turned again to Shirley, "and the other thing you would like to do?" he questioned.

"I should like to go to the Panama Exposition in San Francisco."

Mabel jumped to her feet and clapped her hands.

"That's where I should like to go, too," she cried. "Why didn't I think of it before?"

Mr. Willing considered.

"Well," he said at length, "I don't know why we can't do both of those things, Shirley."

"But the ocean trip, Dad. Where would we go?"

"To San Francisco," was the reply.

"But, how--"

"You must remember that the Panama Canal is open to traffic, daughter," explained Mr. Willing. "We can take a steamer from New York direct to San Francisco. Besides, I should like to have a look at the canal, with its great locks and other interesting things. The construction of the canal is considered one of the greatest of all feats of engineering."

Colonel Ashton nodded his head emphatically.

"I should like to take that trip myself," he declared.

"Then we shall consider that matter settled," said Mr. Willing.

"And when can we start, dad?" asked Shirley eagerly.

"Well, we will not be able to leave here for a week or ten days. I have some business affairs that must be put in order before I can get away. Besides, you two girls will want clothes and things, and you can't get those in a minute."

"We'll go to town this afternoon and get some things," declared Mabel.

"All right," laughed Mr. Willing, "but just the same it will take you at least a week to get yourselves ready. Then I shall have to make arrangements for our passage, find out when we leave New York and attend to other details. It will take time."

"But we shall go as soon as possible, Dad?" asked Shirley.

"Yes," was the reply. "You may make sure of that. We shall go as soon as possible. Hello--who's that?"

The others gazed in the direction of his pointing finger. Through the pike gate, at that moment, came a solitary horseman.

"I wonder who he is?" exclaimed Shirley.