CHRISTMAS EVE.

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 作者：华盛顿·欧文投票推荐加入书签留言反馈

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Saint Francis and Saint Benedight

 Blesse this house from wicked wight;

 From the night-mare and the goblin,

 That is hight good fellow Robin;

 Keep it from all evil spirits,

 Fairies, weezels, rats, as:

 From curfew time

 To the prime.

 CARTWRIGHT.

 IT was a brilliant moonlight night, but extremely cold; our chaise whirled rapidly over the frozen ground; the postboy smacked his whip incessantly, and a part of the time his horses were on a gallop. "He knows where he is going," said my panion, laughing, "and is eager to arrive in time for some of the merriment and good cheer of the servants hall. My father, you must know, is a bigoted devotee of the old school, and prides himself upon keeping up something of old English hospitality. He is a tolerable spe of what you will rarely meet with nowadays in its purity, the old English try gentleman; for our men of fortune spend so much of their time in town, and fashion is carried so muto the try, that the strong rich peculiarities of a rural life are almost polished away. My father, however, from early years, took ho Peacham* for his textbook, instead of Chester?eld; he determined in his own mind that there was no dition more truly honorable and enviable than that of a try gentleman on his paternal lands, and therefore passes the whole of his time on his estate. He is a strenuous advocate for the revival of the old rural games and holiday observances, and is deeply read in the writers, a and modern, who have treated on the subject. Indeed, his favorite range of reading is among the authors who ?ourished at least two turies since, who, he insists, wrote and thought more like true Englishmen than any of their successors. He eves sometimes that he had not been born a few turies earlier, when England was itself and had its peculiar manners and s. As he lives at some distance from the main road, in rather a lonely part of the try, without any rival gentry near him, he has that most enviable of all blessings to an Englishman--an opportunity of indulging the bent of his own humor without molestation. Being representative of the oldest family in the neighborhood, and a great part of the peasantry being his tenants, he is much looked up to, and in general is known simply by the appellation of `The Squire--a title which has been accorded to the head of the family siime immemorial. I think it best to give you these hints about my worthy old father, to prepare you for any etricities that might otherwise appear absurd."

 * Peachams plete Gentleman, 1622.

 assed for some time along the wall of a park, and at length the chaise stopped at the gate. It was in a heavy, mag old style, of iron bars fancifully wrought at top into ?ourishes and ?owers. The huge square ns that supported the gate were surmounted by the family crest. Close adjoining was the porters lodge, sheltered under dark ?r trees and almost buried in shrubbery.

 The postb a large porters bell, which resouhough the still frosty air, and was answered by the distant barking of dogs, with which the mansion-house seemed garrisoned. An old woman immediately appeared at the gate. As the moonlight fell strongly upon her, I had a full view of a little primitive dame, dressed very mu the antique taste, with a kerchief and stomacher, and her silver hair peeping from under a cap of snowy whiteness. She came curtseying forth, with many expressions of simple joy at seeing her young master. Her husband, it seemed, at the house keeping Christmas Eve in the servants hall; they could not do without him, as he was the best hand at a song and story in the household.

 M<big></big>y friend proposed that we should alight and walk through the park to the hall, which was at no great distance, while the chaise should follow on. Our road wound through a noble avenue of trees, among the naked branches of which the moon glittered as she rolled through the deep vault of a cloudless sky. The lawn beyond was sheeted with a slight c of snow, which here and there sparkled as the moonbeams caught a frosty crystal, and at a distance might be seen a thin transparent vapor stealing up from the low grounds and threatening gradually to shroud the landscape.

 My panion looked around him with transport. "How often," said he, "have I scampered up this avenue ourning home on school vacations! How often have I played uhese trees when a boy!

 I feel a degree of ?lial reverence for them, as we look up to those who have cherished us in childhood. My father was always scrupulous iing our holidays and having us around him on family festivals. He used to dired superintend ames with the striess that some parents do the studies of their children. He was very particular that we should play the old English games acc to their inal form, and sulted old books for pret and authority for every `merrie disport; yet I assure you there never edantry so delightful. It was the policy of the good old gentleman to make his childrehat home was the happiest pla the world; and I value this delicious home-feeling as one of the choicest gifts a parent could bestow."

 We were interrupted by the clamor of a troop of dogs of all sorts and sizes, "mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound, and curs of lree," that disturbed by the ring of the porters bell and the rattling of the chaise, came bounding, open-mouthed, across the lawn.

 "`----The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me!"

 cried Bracebridge, laughing. At the sound of his voice the bark was ged into a yelp of delight, and in a moment he was surrounded and almost overpowered by the caresses of the faithful animals.

 We had now e in full view of the old family mansion, partly thrown in deep shadoartly lit up by the oonshi was an irregular building of some magnitude, and seemed to be of the architecture of different periods. One wing was evidently very a, with heavy stone-shafted bow windows jutting out and overrun with ivy, from among the foliage of which the small diamond-shaped panes of glass glittered with the moonbeams. The rest of the house was in the French taste of Charles the Seds time, having been repaired and altered, as my friend told me, by one of his aors who returned with that monarch at the Restoration. The grounds about the house were laid out in the old formal manner of arti?cial ?ower-beds, clipped shrubberies, raised terraces, and heavy stone balustrades, ored with urns, a leaden statue or two, and a jet of water. The old gentleman, I was told, was extremely careful to preserve this obsolete ?nery in all its inal state. He admired this fashion in gardening; it had an air of magni?ce, was courtly and noble, aing good old family style. The boasted imitation of Nature in mardening had sprung up with modern republiotions, but did not suit a monarchical gover; it smacked of the leveling system. I could not help smiling at this introdu of politito gardening, though I expressed some apprehension that I should ?nd the old gentleman rather i in his creed. Frank assured me, however, that it was almost the only instan which he had ever heard his father meddle with politics; and he believed that he had got this notion from a member of Parliament who once passed a few weeks with him.

 The squire was glad of any argument to defend his clipped yew trees and formal terraces, which had been occasionally attacked by modern landscape gardeners.

 As roached the house we heard the sound of musid now and then a burst of laughter from one end of the building. This, Bracebridge said, must proceed from the servants hall, where a great deal of revelry ermitted, and even enced, by the squire throughout the twelve days of Christmas, provided everything was done ably to a usage. Here were kept up the old games of hoodman blind, shoe the wild mare, hot cockles, steal the white loaf, bob apple, and snap dragon; the Yule-clog and Christmas dle were regularly burnt, and the mistletoe with its white berries hung up, to the immi peril of all the pretty housemaids.*

 * The mistletoe is still hung up in farm-houses and kits at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls u, plug each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases.

 So i were the servants upon their sports that we had t repeatedly before we could make ourselves heard. On our arrival being annouhe squire came out to receive us, apanied by his two other sons--one a young of?cer in the army, home on a leave of absehe other an Oxonian, just from the uy.

 The squire was a ?hy-looking old gentleman, with silver hair curling lightly round an open ?orid tenance, in which the physiognomist, with the advantage, like myself, of a previous hint or two, might discover a singular mixture of whim and benevolence.

 The family meeting was warm and affeate; as the evening was far advahe squire would not permit us to ge our travelling dresses, but ushered us at oo the pany, which was assembled in a large old-fashioned hall. It was posed of different branches of a numerous family e, where there were the usual proportion of old uncles and aunts, fortable married dames, superannuated spinsters, blooming try cousins, half-?edged striplings, and bright-eyed b-school hoydens.

 They were variously occupied--some at a round game of cards; others versing around the ?replace; at one end of the hall was a group of the young folks, some nearly grown up, others of a more tender and budding age, fully engrossed by a merry game; and a profusion of wooden horses, penny trumpets, and tattered dolls about the ?oor showed traces of a troop of little fairy beings who, having frolicked through a happy day, had been carried off to slumber through a peaceful night.

 While the mutual greetings were going oween young Bracebridge and his relatives I had time to s the apartment. I have called it a hall, for so it had certainly been in old times, and the squire had evidently endeavored to restore it to something of its primitive state. Over the heavy projeg ?replace was suspended a picture of a warrior in armor, standing by a white horse, and on the opposite wall hung a helmet, buckler, and la one end an enormous pair of antlers were ied in the wall, the branches serving as hooks on which to suspend hats, whips, and spurs, and in the ers of the apartment were fowling-pieces, ?shing-rods, and other sp implements. The furniture was of the cumbrous workmanship of former days, though some articles of modern venience had been added and the oaken ?oor had been carpeted, so that the whole presented an odd mixture of parlor and hall.

 The grate had been removed from the wide overwhelming ?replaake way for a ?re of wood, in the midst of which was an enormous log glowing and blazing, and sending forth a vast volume of light a: this, I uood, was the Yule-clog, which the squire articular in having brought in and illumined on a Christmas Eve, acc to a .*

 * The Yule-clog is a great log of wood, sometimes the root of a tree, brought into the house with great ceremony on Christmas Eve, laid in the ?replace, and lighted with the brand of last years clog. While it lasted there was great drinking, singing, and telling of tales. Sometimes it was apanied by Christmas dles; but itages the only light was from the ruddy blaze of the great wood ?re. The Yule-clog was to burn all night; if it went out, it was sidered a sign of ill luck.

 Herrick mentions it in one of his songs:

 e, bring with a noise,

 My metric, merrie boys,</spa

 The Christmas Log to the ?ring;

 While my good dame, she

 Bids ye all be free,

 And drink to your hearts desiring.

 The Yule-clog is still burnt in many farm-houses and kits<samp>9９ｌｉｂ?</samp> in England, particularly in the north, and there are several superstitions ected with it among the peasantry. If a squinting person e to the house while it is burning, or a person barefooted, it is sidered an ill omen. The brand remaining from the Yule-clog is carefully put away to light the years Christmas ?re.

 It was really delightful to see the old squire seated in his hereditary elbow-chair by the hospitable ?reside of his aors, and looking around him like the sun of a system, beaming warmth and glado every heart. Even the very dog that lay stretched at his feet, as he lazily shifted his position and yawned would look fondly up in his masters face, wag his tail against the ?oor, and stretch himself again to sleep, ?dent of kindness and prote. There is an emanation from the heart in genuine hospitality which ot be described, but is immediately felt and puts the stra o his ease. I had not beeed many minutes by the fortable hearth of the worthy old cavalier before I found myself as much at home as if I had been one of the family.

 Supper was announced shortly after our arrival. It was served up in a spacious oaken chamber, the panels of which shoh wax, and around which were several family portraits decorated with holly and ivy. Besides the aced lights, two great wax tapers, called Christmas dles, wreathed with greens, were placed on a highly polished beaufet among the family plate. The table was abundantly spread with substantial fare; but the squire made his supper of frumenty, a dish made of wheat cakes boiled in milk with rich spices, being a standing dish in old times for Christmas Eve. I was happy to ?nd my old friend, minced pie, iinue of the feast and, ?nding him to be perfectly orthodox, and that I need not be ashamed of my predile, I greeted him with all the warmth wherewith we usually greet an old and very genteel acquaintance.

 The mirth of the pany was greatly promoted by the humors of an etric personage whom Mr. Bracebridge always addressed with the quaint appellation of Master Simon. He was a tight brisk little man, with the air of an arrant old bachelor. His nose was shaped like the bill of a parrot; his face slightly pitted with the small-pox, with a dry perpetual bloom on it, like a frostbitten leaf in autumn. He had an eye of great quiess and vivacity, with a drollery and lurking waggery of expression that was irresistible. He was evidently the wit of the family, dealing very mu sly jokes and innuendoes with the ladies, and making in?nite merriment by harping upon old themes, which, unfortunately, my ignorance of the family icles did not permit me to enjoy. It seemed to be his great delight during supper to keep a young girl o him in a tinual agony of sti?ed laughter, in spite of her awe of the reproving looks of her mother, who sat opposite. Indeed, he was the idol of the younger part of the pany, who laughed at everything he said or did and at every turn of his tenance. I could not wo it; for he must have been a miracle of aplishments in their eyes. He could imitate Pund Judy; make an old woman of his hand, with the assistance of a burnt cork and pocket-handkerchief; and cut an e ></a>into such a ludicrous caricature that the young folks were ready to die with laughing.

 I was let brie?y into his history by Frank Bracebridge. He was an old bachelor, of a small indepe ine, which by careful ma was suf?t for all his wants. He revolved through the family system like a vagrant et in its orbit, sometimes visiting one branch, and sometimes another quite remote, as is often the case with gentlemen of extensive es and small fortunes in England. He had a chirping, buoyant disposition, always enjoying the present moment; and his frequent ge of se and pany prevented his acquiring those rusty, unaodating habits with which old bachelors are so uncharitably charged. He was a plete family icle, being versed in the genealogy, history, and intermarriages of the whole house of Bracebridge, which made him a great favorite with the old folks; he was a beau of all the elder ladies and superannuated spinsters, among whom he was habitually sidered rather a young fellow; and he was master of the revels among the children, so that there was not a more popular being in the sphere in which he moved than Mr. Simon Bracebridge. Of late years he had resided almost entirely with the squire, to whom he had bee a fa, and whom he particularly delighted by jumping with his humor in respect to old times and by having a scrap of an old song to suit every occasion. resently a spe of his last-mentioalent, for no sooner was supper removed and spiced wines and other beverages peculiar to the season introduced, than Master Simon was called on food old Christmas song. He bethought himself for a moment, and then, with a sparkle of the eye and a voice that was by no means bad, excepting that it ran occasionally into a falsetto like the notes of a split reed, he quavered forth a quaint old ditty:

 Now Christmas is e,

 Let us beat up the drum,

 And call all our neighbors together;

 And when they appear,

 Let us make them such cheer,

 As will keep out the wind and the weather, &c.

 The supper had disposed every oo gayety, and an old harper was summoned from the servants hall, where he had been strumming all the evening, and to all appearanf himself with some of the squires home-brewed. He was a kind of hanger-on, I was told, of the establishment, and, though ostensibly a resident of the village, was ofteo be found in the squires kit than his own home, the old gentleman being fond of the sound of "harp in hall."

 The dance, like most dances after supper, was a merry one: some of the older folks joined in it, and the squire himself ?gured down several couple with a partner with whom he af?rmed he had da every Christmas for nearly half a tury. Master Simon, who seemed to be a kind of eg liween the old times and the new, and to be withal a little antiquated iaste of his aplishments, evidently piqued himself on his dang, and was endeav to gai by the heel and tadoon, and races of the a school; but he had unluckily assorted himself with a little romping girl from b-school, who by her wild vivacity kept him tinually oretd defeated all his sober attempts at elegance: such are the ill-sorted matches to whitique gentlemen are unfortunately prone.

 The young Oxonian, on the trary, had led out one of his maiden aunts, on whom the rogue played a thousand little knaveries with impunity: he was full of practical jokes, and his delight was to tease his aunts and cousins, yet, like all madcap youngsters, he was a universal favorite among the women. The most iing couple in the dance was the young of?cer and a ward of the squires, a beautiful blushing girl of seventeen. From several shy glances which I had noticed in the course of the evening I suspected there was a little kindness growing up between them; and ihe young soldier was just the hero to captivate a romantic girl. He was tall, slender, and handsome, and, like most young British of?cers of late years, had picked up various small aplishments on the ti: he could talk Frend Italian, draw landscapes, siolerably, dance divinely, but, above all, he had been wou Waterloo. What girl of seventeen, well read iry and romance, could resist such a mirror of chivalry and perfe?

 The moment the dance was over he caught up a guitar, and, lolling against the old marble ?repla an attitude which I am half ined to suspect was studied, begatle French air of the Troubadour. The squire, however, exclaimed against having anything on Christmas Eve but good old English; upon which the young minstrel, casting up his eye for a moment as if in an effort of memory, struto arain, and with a charming air of gallantry gave Herricks "Night-Piece to Julia:"

 Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee,

 The shooting stars attend thee,

 And the elves also,

 Whose little eyes glow

 Like the sparks of ?re, befriend thee.

 No Will-o-the-Wisp mislight thee;

 Nor snake nor slow-worm bite thee;

 But on thy way,

 Not making a stay,

 Since ghost there is o affright thee,

 The not the dark thee cumber;

 What though the moon does slumber,

 The stars of the night

 Will lend thee their light,

 Like tapers clear without number.

 Then, Julia, let me woo thee,

 Thus, thus to e unto me,

 And when I shall meet

 Thy silvery feet,

 My soul Ill pour into thee.

 The song might ht not have been intended in pliment to the fair Julia, for so I found his partner was called; she, however, was certainly unscious of any such application, for she never looked at the singer, but kept her eyes cast upon the ?oor. Her face was suffused, it is true, with a beautiful blush, and there was a gentle heaving of the bosom, but all that was doubtless caused by the exercise of the dance; indeed, so great was her indifferehat she amused herself with plug to pieces a choice bouquet of hot-house ?owers, and by the time the song was cluded the nosegay lay in ruins on the ?oor.

 The party now broke up for the night with the kied old of shaking hands. As I passed through the hall on my way to my chamber, the dying embers of the Yule-clog still sent forth a dusky glow, and had it not been the season when "no spirit dares stir abroad," I should have been half tempted to steal from my room at midnight and peep whether the fairies might not be at their revels about the hearth.

 My chamber was in the old part of the mansion, the ponderous furniture of which might have been fabricated in the days of the giants. The room anelled, with ices of heavy carved work, in which ?owers and grotesque faces were strangely intermingled, and a row of black-looking portraits stared mournfully at me from the walls. The bed was of rich thought faded damask, with a lofty tester, and stood in a niche opposite a bow window. I had scarcely got into bed when a strain of music seemed to break forth in the air just below the window. I listened, and found it proceeded from a band which I cluded to be the Waits from some neighb village. They went round the house, playing uhe windows. I drew aside the curtains to hear them more distinctly. The moonbeams fell through the upper part of the casement; partially lighting up the antiquated apartment. The sounds, as they receded, became more soft and aerial, and seemed to accord with the quiet and moonlight. I listened and listehey became more and more tender ae, and, as they gradually died away, my head sunk upon the pillow and I fell asleep.

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