The History of Gutta-Percha Willie - The Working Genius George MacDonald

George MacDonald (10 December 1824 - 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. 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.