hair
angrily as though she wished it had been Amanda's hair instead. "They
just happen to come from the same town, that's all."

"Never mind about Amanda, Billie," pleaded Violet, looking uneasily at
the door. "We're late----"

"Oh, don't worry," interrupted Rose, giving a final pat to her black
hair. "That was only the first gong. The second one rings five minutes
later. There it goes now. Are you ready?"

The girls were ready, and with quickly beating hearts they stepped out
into the corridor.

CHAPTER IX

A NEW ACQUAINTANCE

"This way," said their new acquaintance, turning to the right and
starting for the stairs. "Now for the second of the Dill Pickles. Long
may she wave!" she added gaily.

It was a new experience for Billie Bradley and for Laura and
Violet--that hour in the dining hall. The hall itself was an immense
room and seemed at first glance to be made up almost entirely of
windows. As Rose Belser afterward remarked to the girls, there was one
thing that no one at Three Towers Hall had to complain of, and that was
lack of light.

Three tables stretched almost the entire length of the hall, and
although they all bore snowy cloths there was only one of them that was
really "set for action," as Laura said.

Most of the girls had already assembled when the chums reached the
dining hall. They were standing around in little groups of two or three,
talking excitedly, and while the girls were hesitating which group to
join Miss Cora Dill swept into the room.

"Now you'd better mind your Ps and Qs," Rose whispered to them, and the
girls regarded with interest the second of the Dill twin sisters who had
been called by the disrespectful name of the "Twin Dill Pickles."

Miss Cora Dill was indeed Miss Ada's counter-part. There was the same
thin figure and straight back, the same black eyes and thin-lipped
mouth, 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," said
Billie to Laura in an under-tone. "If they were just exactly alike we'd
have to do with them the way they do with twin babies--tie a blue ribbon
on one and a pink ribbon on the other."

The idea of tying a pink ribbon or any other kind of ribbon on the "Twin
Dill Pickles" was so ridiculous that the girls giggled aloud, thereby
causing Vi to nudge Billie sharply.

"Sh-h," she whispered