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Gutta-Percha Willie By: George MacDonald (1824-1905) |
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BY GEORGE MACDONALD With eight black and white illustrations by Arthur Hughes [Illustration: WILLIE'S HORSE SHOEING FORGE.]
CONTENTS I. WHO HE WAS AND WHERE HE WAS
II. WILLIE'S EDUCATION
III. HE IS TURNED INTO SOMETHING HE NEVER WAS BEFORE
IV. HE SERVES AN APPRENTICESHIP
V. HE GOES TO LEARN A TRADE
VI. HOW WILLIE LEARNED TO READ BEFORE HE KNEW HIS LETTERS
VII. SOME THINGS THAT CAME OF WILLIE'S GOING TO SCHOOL
VIII. WILLIE DIGS AND FINDS WHAT HE DID NOT EXPECT
IX. A MARVEL
X. A NEW ALARUM
XI. SOME OF THE SIGHTS WILLIE SAW
XII. A NEW SCHEME
XIII. WILLIE'S NEST IN THE RUINS
XIV. WILLIE'S GRANDMOTHER
XV. HYDRAULICS
XVI. HECTOR HINTS AT A DISCOVERY
XVII. HOW WILLIE WENT ON
XVIII. WILLIE'S TALK WITH HIS GRANDMOTHER
XIX. A TALK WITH MR SHEPHERD
XX. HOW WILLIE DID HIS BEST TO MAKE A BIRD OF AGNES
XXI. HOW AGNES LIKED BEING A BIRD
XXII. WILLIE'S PLANS BUD
XXIII. WILLIE'S PLANS BLOSSOM
XXIV. WILLIE'S PLANS BEAR FRUIT
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
ARTHUR HUGHES WILLIE'S HORSE SHOEING FORGE (FRONTISPIECE)
MRS WILSON'S STORIES
WILLIE WITH THE BABY
WILLIE TAKEN TO SEE A WATER WHEEL
WILLIE TOLD HIS FATHER ALL ABOUT IT
"THAT'S WILLIE AGAIN"
WILLIE MAKES A BIRD OF AGNES
WILLIE'S DREAM
Summary: Gutta Percha Willie, the Working Genius
for all reading ages. We and Willie
discover the value of learning to be useful
with our hands to do that which is good and
before us.
Reading Level: for all reading ages.
THE HISTORY OF GUTTA PERCHA WILLIE.
CHAPTER I.
WHO HE WAS AND WHERE HE WAS. When he had been at school for about three weeks, the boys called him
Six fingered Jack; but his real name was Willie, for his father and
mother gave it him not William, but Willie, after a brother of his
father, who died young, and had always been called Willie. His name in
full was Willie Macmichael. It was generally pronounced Macmickle, which
was, by a learned anthropologist, for certain reasons about to appear
in this history, supposed to have been the original form of the name,
dignified in the course of time into Macmichael. It was his own father,
however, who gave him the name of Gutta Percha Willie, the reason of
which will also show itself by and by. Mr Macmichael was a country doctor, living in a small village in a
thinly peopled country; the first result of which was that he had very
hard work, for he had often to ride many miles to see a patient, and
that not unfrequently in the middle of the night; and the second that,
for this hard work, he had very little pay, for a thinly peopled country
is generally a poor country, and those who live in it are poor also,
and cannot spend much even upon their health. But the doctor not only
preferred a country life, although he would have been glad to have
richer patients, and within less distances of each other, but he would
say to any one who expressed surprise that, with his reputation, he
should remain where he was "What's to become of my little flock if I
go away, for there are very few doctors of my experience who would feel
inclined to come and undertake my work. I know every man, woman, and
child in the whole country side, and that makes all the difference." You
see, therefore, that he was a good kind hearted man, and loved his work,
for the sake of those whom he helped by it, better than the money he
received for it. Their home was necessarily a very humble one a neat little cottage in
the village of Priory Leas almost the one pretty spot thereabout. It
lay in a valley in the midst of hills, which did not look high,
because they rose with a gentle slope, and had no bold elevations or
grand shaped peaks. But they rose to a good height notwithstanding, and
the weather on the top of them in the wintertime was often bitter and
fierce bitter with keen frost, and fierce with as wild winds as ever
blew. Of both frost and wind the village at their feet had its share
too, but of course they were not so bad down below, for the hills were a
shelter from the wind, and it is always colder the farther you go up and
away from the heart of this warm ball of rock and earth upon which we
live... Continue reading book >>
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