and unavoidable in the other.

These are my notions about crotchety people, in general, and I have
thrown them out, as one throws out feather beds from the garret
windows, when the house is on fire--so that the articles that are to
be thrown afterward may find a good soft spot to alight on, and not
get damaged by their fall.

The truth is, I am going to introduce to you an old gentleman, who
had a large head, tolerably well filled with crotchets; and as it is
such a common thing for people to raise a hue and cry against every
body who has any oddities about him, I thought I would put you on your
guard a little, by a word of apology for that entire race of people,
who are odd because they cannot be any thing else.

This old gentleman, who, by the way, was a great friend of the little
folks, is _Mike Marble_. I introduce him to you as an _old_ gentleman.
But, although he was old, when I first saw him, I must not forget
that he was young once--as young as any of my readers--and that he
played his part as a boy, as well as his part as a man. There are a
good many anecdotes afloat about him and his odd way of doing things,
before he grew up to manhood. My grandfather knew him when he was a
lad at school. I believe he and Mike were nearly of the same age.

That grandfather of mine, now I think of it, was a great story-teller.
I have sometimes nearly half made up my mind, while casting about me,
to find some new mine of stories for my young readers, that I would
put my thinking cap on, and see if I could not recollect a budget of
my grandfather's stories, large enough to fill a book. I am not sure
but I will do so one of these days; and, if I do, I shall print the
budget, depend upon it.

My grandfather and Mike Marble were as dear to each other as if they
had been brothers. They lived not far apart, and went to school
together. For some of Mike's crotchets I am indebted to this old
friend of his. Others I picked up, here and there, among old people
that knew him, and others still I got from a personal acquaintance
with him in his old age.

You will excuse me, if I call him _Mike_ sometimes. He was always so
called, when he was a boy, I believe. And while you are excusing me
for calling him _Mike_--you see I take you to be very kind and
obliging--you will please excuse me, also, if I happen to prefix the
title of _Uncle_ to that nickname; for he was known, far and near, as
_Uncle Mike_ in his later days.

It is true