und that what Rose Belser and Connie Danvers had said
about Miss Cora and Miss Ada Dill--the "Twin Dill Pickles," when nobody
was around--was terribly and awfully true.

The Dill twins never seemed to miss an opportunity to make the girls
feel bad. They were sarcastic in class, and seemed to take real delight
in hurting the feelings of their pupils whenever it was possible.

It was only a few days after the opening of the school year when Billie
had her first little set-to with Miss Cora Dill. The latter had just
finished calling the roll and had pushed the book from her. Then she
looked sharply at Billie.

"Your name is Beatrice, is it not?" she asked in a tone as acid as her
dill pickle nickname.

"Yes, Miss Dill," answered Billie, wondering nervously if there were
anything wrong about her name and miserably conscious that the eyes of
all 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 Billie
through with her black eyes. "And it is extremely unladylike for a girl
to bear a boy's name. Extremely unladylike," she repeated, staring at
poor Billie, who was as red as a beet and filled with a wild desire to
run away and cry.

She might have done it, too, at least the crying part, but a titter from
one of the girls in the back of the room saved her. She was no longer
afraid, only angry--horribly angry.

So she just looked up in thin-lipped Miss Cora's face and said very
quietly: "I never thought about my name being unladylike, Miss Cora, and
I'm sure it hasn't made any difference with me. Mother says that it is
the way one acts that counts."

"Well, see that you take care of your actions," retorted Miss Dill
tartly, and turning to one of the other girls called upon her for a
recitation.

But it was Billie who had won the day. The girls knew it and Miss Cora
knew it, and this helped to make the latter feel in a still more
unkindly mood toward the girl with the "unladylike name."

"I'll watch her," thought Miss Cora angrily. "She isn't the kind to be
trusted."

Laura and Violet were furious, and when they returned to the dormitory
to prepare for lunch began to hatch all sorts of wild plans by which
they could "lay this one of the Dill Pickles low."

"What's the excitement?" asked Rose, and Laura began heatedly to
describe what had happened in the schoolroom, while several of the