CHAPTER XII
TOO MUCH TO EAT
If any one had told the three girls that the second day would hold moreof excitement and pleasure than the first, they would not have believedit. But so it was.
Billie woke early that morning and found the sun shining gloriouslythrough the window. It took her a minute or two to realize just whereshe was. Then she sat up in bed and looked across at her two sleepingchums.
Laura lay on her side, hugging her pillow, and Violet was flat on herback, blissfully unconscious of the ray of sunshine that fell across herface.
Billie's glance traveled from them to Rose Belser, who looked as prettyasleep as she did awake, and from her to Amanda Peabody and Eliza Dilks.
She made a little grimace as she looked at them, for their straight,stringy hair and pinched, freckled faces were a striking contrast toRose's prettiness.
"Oh, I wish everybody'd get up," she thought. "It must be nearly seveno'clock."
Even as she spoke the first bell rang, and the sudden sharp noisethrough the still Hall made her start up in bed. It roused the othergirls, and they yawned and stretched sleepily.
"Goodness, is it time to get up already?" asked Laura, glaring at Billieas if it were all her fault. "Why, I just this very minute got tosleep."
"You'd better stop talking and get up," Rose called to them, flingingback her black hair and jumping to her feet. "We have only half an hourto get ready for breakfast, and if you're late and haven't anyexcuse--well, don't expect any sympathy from Miss Cora, that's all."
The girls did not need any second hint to make them hurry, and full tenminutes before the breakfast gong rang they were ready and waiting.
There was great excitement in the dining hall, for this was the day whenthe old students of Three Towers Hall were expected, and the girls whohad remained at the school for the summer vacation were eager to renewold friendships.
It was about ten o'clock when the girls began to pour in, and from thenon excitement and confusion reigned.
"It makes you feel kind of lonesome," said Laura, with a sigh.
"And the older girls look awfully dressed up and--and--stuck up," saidVi, snuggling up to Billie as if for comfort. "Do you suppose theyreally are, Billie--stuck up, I mean?"
"I'm sure I don't know," said Billie, feeling a little nervous herself."For all we know," she added, with a chuckle, "we may look stuck upourselves."
"Well, maybe we are," Laura giggled. "That's what Amanda is alwayscalling us, you know."
"Oh, look," whispered Vi suddenly. "There's Rose Belser with one of thenew girls. I wonder who she is."
The new girl in question was a nice looking, rather serious girl whowore glasses and looked to the girls--so they said later--as if shemight really like to study. She was carrying a grip and had evidentlyjust arrived.
While the girls watched, she and Rose turned and started in theirdirection. For a minute Billie could have sworn Rose did not mean tostop. However, she did stop, and rather reluctantly introduced thestranger to them.
"This is Caroline Brant," she said, adding as she turned to the strangegirl with a queer little smile: "These are some of the new girls who arein our dorm, Caroline. Billie Bradley, Violet Farrington and LauraJordon."
Caroline Brant shook hands and smiled a grave smile that seemed "justmade to go with her glasses," Laura said afterward. When the girl hadpassed on with Rose toward the stairway, the chums had a queer sense ofcomfort--as though they had found at least one good friend at ThreeTowers Hall.
Lunch came and went, and so absorbed were the girls in the fun andexcitement of meeting new girls and listening to stories of good timeshad during the summer that dinner caught them before they knew it andthey found that the day was gone.
Everybody went to bed early that night, for Miss Walters had sent aroundan order that all lights should be out by nine o'clock sharp. The nextday the real work of the term was to begin, and she wanted all her girlsbright and fresh for the start.
The next week would have been perfect for the girls, but for one thing.They liked their classrooms, which occupied all the second and thirdfloors, they liked their studies, and they loved most of theirteachers--especially Miss Race, the mathematics teacher.
But they soon found that what Rose Belser and Connie Danvers had saidabout Miss Cora and Miss Ada Dill--the "Twin Dill Pickles," when nobodywas around--was terribly and awfully true.
The Dill twins never seemed to miss an opportunity to make the girlsfeel bad. They were sarcastic in class, and seemed to take real delightin hurting the feelings of their pupils whenever it was possible.
It was only a few days after the opening of the school year when Billiehad her first little set-to with Miss Cora Dill. The latter had justfinished calling the roll and had pushed the book from her. Then shelooked sharply at Billie.
"Your name is Beatrice, is it not?" she asked in a tone as acid as herdill pickle nickname.
"Yes, Miss Dill," answered Billie, wondering nervously if there wereanything wrong about her name and miserably conscious that the eyes ofall the girls were upon her.
"But the girls call you 'Billie,' do they not?" asked Miss Cora.
"Yes," said Billie again.
"But 'Billie' is a boy's name," said Miss Cora tartly, boring Billiethrough with her black eyes. "And it is extremely unladylike for a girlto bear a boy's name. Extremely unladylike," she repeated, staring atpoor Billie, who was as red as a beet and filled with a wild desire torun away and cry.
She might have done it, too, at least the crying part, but a titter fromone of the girls in the back of the room saved her. She was no longerafraid, only angry--horribly angry.
So she just looked up in thin-lipped Miss Cora's face and said veryquietly: "I never thought about my name being unladylike, Miss Cora, andI'm sure it hasn't made any difference with me. Mother says that it isthe way one acts that counts."
"Well, see that you take care of your actions," retorted Miss Dilltartly, and turning to one of the other girls called upon her for arecitation.
But it was Billie who had won the day. The girls knew it and Miss Coraknew it, and this helped to make the latter feel in a still moreunkindly mood toward the girl with the "unladylike name."
"I'll watch her," thought Miss Cora angrily. "She isn't the kind to betrusted."
Laura and Violet were furious, and when they returned to the dormitoryto prepare for lunch began to hatch all sorts of wild plans by whichthey could "lay this one of the Dill Pickles low."
"What's the excitement?" asked Rose, and Laura began heatedly todescribe what had happened in the schoolroom, while several of the othergirls gathered around.
When she came to Billie's answer the girls looked pleased and one ofthem clapped her hands.
"Good for you, Billie Bradley!" cried a dark girl, joyfully. "You musthave given the Dill Pickle the surprise of her life."
"She bearded the lion in his den, the Pickle in her Hall," quotedanother of the girls. "You know, I'd have given anything to have beenthere."
"And you a new girl, too," said another, looking at Billie with admiringeyes.
From that time on Billie became a noted figure among the hundred girlsat Three Towers Hall, and her fame and popularity grew in leaps andbounds.
Rose Belser viewed this new state of affairs calmly at first, then withalarm, and later with dismay. That a new girl should come to ThreeTowers and immediately begin to shoulder herself into the limelight wasunthinkable, impossible, it couldn't be done. And yet Billie Bradley wasdoing it!
After a while she began to draw away from Billie, look indifferent whenone of the girls spoke of her praisingly, slighted her in a hundredlittle ways that Billie herself could hardy put her finger on. And yetshe felt it.
Billie had one other constant enemy at Three Towers, and that was MissCora. Miss Cora never missed a chance to humiliate her--or at least tryto humiliate her. But Billie was so happy and having such a wonderfultime that she never gave these attempts any more att
ention than shewould so many mosquito bites, thereby fanning Miss Cora's dislike ofher.
Meanwhile the two Miss Dills grew more and more sour and crabbed untilthe girls began to wonder "why they didn't die of it." Then one noontime Laura came running into the dormitory, her eyes big and round withexcitement.
"What do you think?" she cried, while the girls gathered round her. "Iheard Miss Cora and Miss Ada talking together. I was in the lab and theywere in the hall and they didn't know I was anywhere around."
"Well?" asked the girls impatiently as she paused for breath.
"They were talking about our meals," Laura went on. "They said we gotaltogether too much to eat."
"Too much to eat!" echoed the girls, looking at one another wonderingly.
"Why, we don't get any more than we want," said Billie.
"What else did they say, Laura?" urged Vi.
"That was about all." Laura had gone over to the wash basin and waswashing her hands hard as though to get some of her dislike of the "DillPickles" out of her system. "I was so surprised I couldn't help hearinga couple of sentences. Then I coughed and came out of the lab and theylooked as if they'd like to kill me. 'The girls are getting altogethertoo much to eat,' said Miss Ada." Laura mimicked her to perfection."'Yes,' said Miss Cora, 'we must give them less--a good deal less.'"
"Well, I'd just like to see them try it, that's all," said Billie,adding with a sigh: "Thank goodness, we still have Miss Walters, anyway.She won't let us quite starve to death!"