CHAPTER IX
A NEW ACQUAINTANCE
"This way," said their new acquaintance, turning to the right andstarting for the stairs. "Now for the second of the Dill Pickles. Longmay she wave!" she added gaily.
It was a new experience for Billie Bradley and for Laura andViolet--that hour in the dining hall. The hall itself was an immenseroom and seemed at first glance to be made up almost entirely ofwindows. As Rose Belser afterward remarked to the girls, there was onething that no one at Three Towers Hall had to complain of, and that waslack of light.
Three tables stretched almost the entire length of the hall, andalthough they all bore snowy cloths there was only one of them that wasreally "set for action," as Laura said.
Most of the girls had already assembled when the chums reached thedining hall. They were standing around in little groups of two or three,talking excitedly, and while the girls were hesitating which group tojoin Miss Cora Dill swept into the room.
"Now you'd better mind your Ps and Qs," Rose whispered to them, and thegirls regarded with interest the second of the Dill twin sisters who hadbeen called by the disrespectful name of the "Twin Dill Pickles."
Miss Cora Dill was indeed Miss Ada's counter-part. There was the samethin figure and straight back, the same black eyes and thin-lippedmouth, the only difference being that where Miss Ada's hair was white,Miss Cora's hair still retained some traces of its original brown color.
"Goodness, I'm glad there's some way we can tell them apart," saidBillie to Laura in an under-tone. "If they were just exactly alike we'dhave to do with them the way they do with twin babies--tie a blue ribbonon one and a pink ribbon on the other."
The idea of tying a pink ribbon or any other kind of ribbon on the "TwinDill Pickles" was so ridiculous that the girls giggled aloud, therebycausing Vi to nudge Billie sharply.
"Sh-h," she whispered. "Her Highness is about to speak."
Miss Cora carried some cards in her hands, and as the girls gatheredabout her she asked them to answer when she called out their names.
Although there were a hundred students in Three Towers Hall, there wereonly half a dozen who, like pretty Rose Belser, had spent the summer atthe school.
The rest of the girls were almost all from North Bend and the othersurrounding towns, although a few had come from a distance.
When the girls had all reported present, Miss Cora gave them their seatsat the table and took her own place at the head of it.
At first the girls were not at all sure whether they were supposed totalk or not, for the presence of thin-lipped Miss Cora at the head ofthe table threw rather a damper on both their enthusiasm and theirappetites.
However, when Rose Belser leaned across several girls to say somethingto Billie the rest of the girls took courage and a little murmur ofconversation traveled around the table.
The lunch was a satisfying one, and the girls, beginning to recover fromtheir excitement and being really hungry from the long train trip, ateheartily.
But every once in a while, when the talk and laughter about the tablethreatened to become too hilarious, the girls were conscious of MissCora's voice reminding them that the table was the "place fordecorum--not for rioting."
Billie and her chums were half way down the table, a fact for which theywere very thankful. Placed only two or three seats away from Miss Cora,at the head of the table, was Nellie Bane. Nellie seemed to have struckup a sudden friendship with one of the half dozen girls who had spentthe summer at the school, and the two were evidently having aninteresting conversation.
Billie, catching Nellie's eye, telegraphed to her by means of the signlanguage the wish to see her some time after lunch, and Nellie, in thesame language, agreed.
At last lunch was over and the girls reluctantly left the table. But asthey were about to leave the room Miss Cora called them together again,saying that she had something important to say to them.
"You will each find a set of rules on your dresser," she said. "Andbefore you do anything else it will be well for each girl to becomethoroughly acquainted with them and the penalties for breaking them.After to-day any departure from the rules will meet with the properpunishment."
"Anybody would think we were three years old," grumbled Laura, when theywere on their way back to the dormitories. "Goodness, I wonder who everlet her in, anyway."
"Oh, you'll soon get used to her," Rose assured them. She seemed to haveattached herself definitely to the girls, who, although they found heramusing and interesting, would rather have been left to themselves onthis first day. "Everybody dislikes her at first--and Miss Ada,too--but they only laugh at them after awhile. You see," she finished asif the girls must understand, "we have Miss Walters."
"Well, all I have to say," said Laura, whose temper had beenconsiderably ruffled by this second of the "Twin Dill Pickles," "is thatit's lucky Miss Walters and not Miss Cora is at the head of things."
When the girls reached the dormitory they looked for the rules, foundthem, and sat down eagerly to read them over together. First of all theyfound that the dormitories, eleven in all, were lettered. The letter oftheir dormitory was "C."
There were the usual rules about late hours, going outside the groundswithout leave, neglecting to wear rubbers in the rain, all with theusual penalties attached. But the one that most interested the girls wasthe punishment given for keeping lights on after hours.
"Three days without recreation and isolation in the dormitory for theduration of that period," read Billie indignantly. "Goodness! I wonderif all that happens to you if you keep your light on five minutes afterhours."
"It does if Miss Cora or Miss Ada catches you," drawled Rose, from whereshe was curled up again on the foot of the bed watching the girls withlazy interest. "Some of the teachers are all right. There's Miss Harris,and Miss Race the math teacher. If they catch you just a few minutesover time they'll give you a lecture and let you off without reportingit to Miss Walters. But if it's any of the others--look out, that'sall."
A few minutes later Nellie Bane came in, bringing her new friend withher, and for a little while the girls forgot all about rules and "TwinDill Pickles" and everything else and just had a good time.
Nellie's new acquaintance was a small fluffy little blonde whom thegirls liked right away. Her name was Constance Danvers, called "Connie"for short, and the name seemed to suit her exactly. Of course, she andRose Belser, having spent the preceding year together, knew each otherwell, but Billie noticed that the two girls did not seem over friendly.
"I don't know," she thought to herself, "but I'm going to like Conniebetter than Rose."
A little while later Rose suggested that she and Connie show the girlsabout the Hall, to which the newcomers eagerly agreed.
"I wonder," said Vi suddenly, as they were about to leave the room,"what has become of Amanda and Eliza Dilks. They haven't been up heresince lunch."
"Well, why should we care?" sang out Billie happily. "I only hope theystay away."
"Probably up to some mean tricks," said Laura gloomily.
Connie and Rose were eager to hear more of Eliza and her friend, but thechums could not be made to tell tales. The girls would have to find outwhat Amanda was for themselves.
"Only," thought Billie to herself, as they ran down the stairs, "I wouldlike to know where those two sneaks are and why they didn't come back tothe dormitory. I know they'll _try_ to spoil all our fun, even if theycan't _do_ it."
Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall; Or, Leading a Needed Rebellion Page 9