A On Friday, Bobby kept at it: “Francis is a girl’s name, Francis is a girl’s name.” Their regular teacher, who was back at school, told Bobby to apologize. Then the teacher had an idea. The students would present oral reports about their first names. At the library that afternoon, Frank found out that many famous people had the name Francis. There was a young man from Italy who gave up his family’s money 800 years ago. He went on to become Saint Francis, who was famous for talking to animals. There was a famous explorer named Sir Francis Drake. He sailed around the world more than 400 years ago! There were many kinds named Francis, too. B On Monday, Frank told the story of his name. He talked about the saint and the kings. He talked about the famous explorer. Then he said he wasn’t named after any of those people. He was named after his great-great-great-grandmother, the hero. When he finished the story about Frances Hightower, the whole class clapped----even Bobby. C Frank was having a perfectly good week at school. On Thursday, his teacher stayed home sick. A different teacher called the class roll. “Francis... is there a Francis Smith here?” he asked. Of course Frank knew his name was Francis and that Frank was just his nickname. His parents called him Frank, and all his friends did, too. Bobby, though who was new in school, yelled out to the whole class that Francis was a girl’s name! At recess, Bobby made fun of Frank. “Francis is a girl’s name, Francis is a girl’s name,” he called. Frank didn’t care what Bobby thought, but he didn’t like to be made fun of. D Sometimes, during the perfectly good week that followed, Frank’s friends called him Francis. Frank liked having two names, one of them from a real hero. It made him want to be heroic, even if that just meant being kind or helping a dog. From then on, whenever he did heroic deeds or even thought heroic thoughts, Frank signed his own name as Francis... a perfectly good name. E Over the weekend, Frank’s mother said something else about his name. “Do you know you were named after a hero?” she asked. “Long ago, your great-great-great-grandmother’s ship sank. She was just a kid. But she grabbed a piece of wood and swam five miles to shore while holding on to her little brother. She saved his life. Her name was Frances Hightower.” Francis might not be a girl’s name, but he was named after a girl---an awesome girl! F At home, Frank asked his mother about his name. She was just about to say something else when the family dog, Dino, limped through the back door. Dino lifted his paw. Frank found a thorn and pulled it out. By then, he and his mother had both forgotten about his name.