A Speckled Bird

E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
Grandma, who named me Eglah?
My cousin, Bishop Vivian, when he baptized you.
Do you think he had any right to put such a label on me?
Certainly, because your father selected your name, and the bishop had no choice.
It is so ugly, I never can like it, and a little baby that can't speak her mind ought not to be tied to something she must drag all her life and hate for ever and ever.
Eat your breakfast, and try to be a good, quiet child, then your name will not trouble you so much.
I never shall like it, any more than you do, and you know, grandma, when you call me your mouth twists like you had toothache.
I was not consulted about your name. It belonged to your New England Grandmother Kent, and as it appears you belong only to your father, you were called after his mother. I heard him tell you it was the name of a queen—one of David's wives.
Yes, but I found out she was not the head queen—just a sort of step-wife queen. Now if I could only be the pet queen, Sheba, I should not fret at all.
The Queen of Sheba was not David's wife.
You are all wrong about your Bible, grandma, because you are only a Methodist. David's Sheba was nicknamed Bath Sheba, for the reason that he saw her going to her bath-house, and she looked so pretty. I saw her picture in father's 'Piscopal Bible.