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    (FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRIICKERBOCKER.)

    <span style="crey"> A pleasing land of drowsy-head it was,</span>

    <span style="crey">Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye,</span>

    <span style="crey">And of gay castles in the clouds that pays,</span>

    <span style="crey">For ever ?ushing round a summer sky.</span>

    Castle of Indolen the bosom of one of those spacious coves whident the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the a Dutavigators the Tappan Zee, and where they alrudently shortened sail and implored the prote of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market-town or rural port which by some is called Greensburg, but which is menerally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town. This name was given, we are told, in former days by the good housewives of the adjat try from the ie propensity of their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it for the sake of being precise and authentiot far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley, or rather lap of land, among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull oo repose, and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity.

    I recollect that when a stripling my ?rst exploit in squirrel-shooting was in a grove of tall walnut trees that shades one side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noontime, when all Nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of my own gun as it broke the Sabbath stillness around and rolonged and reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I should wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world and its distras and dream quiet.ly away the remnant of a troubled   life, I know of none more promising than this little valley.

    From the listless repose of the plad the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are desdants from the inal Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighb try. A drowsy, dreamy in?uence seems to hang over the land and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a High German doctor during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his pos there before the try was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudsoain it is, the place still tinues uhe sway of some witg power that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a tinual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights and hear musid voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; stars shoot aelare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the try, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite se of her gambols.

    The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this ented region, and seems to be ander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a ?gure on horseback without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head had been carried away by a onball in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War, and who is ever and anon seen by the try-folk hurrying along in the gloom of night as if on the wings of the wind. His haunts are not ed to the valley, but extend at times to the adjat roads, and especially to the viity of a church at no great distance. Indeed, certain of the most authentic historians of those parts, who have been careful   in colleg and collating the ?oating facts ing this spectre, allege that the body of the trooper, having been buried in the churchyard, the ghost rides forth to the se of battle in nightly quest of his head, and that the rushing speed with which he sometimes passes along the Hollow, like a midnight blast, is owing to his beied and in a hurry to get back to the churchyard before daybreak.

    Such is the general purport of this legendary superstition, which has furnished materials for many a wild story in that region of shadows; and the spectre is known at all the try ?resides by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.

    It is remarkable that the visionary propensity I have mentioned is not ed to the native inhabitants of the valley, but is unsciously imbibed by every one who resides there for a time.

    However wide awake they may have been before they ehat sleepy region, they are sure in a little time to ihe witg in?uence of the air and begin to grow imaginative--to dream dreams and see apparitions.

    I mention this peaceful spot with all possible laud, for it is in such little retired Dutch valleys, found here and there embosomed in the great State of New York, that population, manners, and s remain ?xed, while the great torrent of migration and improvement, which is making sucessant ges in other parts of this restless try, sweeps by them unobserved. They are like those little nooks of still water which border a rapid stream where we may see the straw and bubble riding quietly at anchor or slowly revolving in their mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current. Though many years have elapsed sirod the drowsy shades of Sleepy Hollow, yet I questioher I should not still ?nd the same trees and the same families vegetating in its sheltered bosom.

    In this by-place of Nature there abode, in a remote period of Ameri history--that is to say, some thirty years since--a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod e, who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, &quot;tarried,&quot; in Sleepy Hollow for the purpose of instrug the children of the viity. He was a native of ecticut, a State which supplies the Union with pioneers for the mind as well as for the forest, and sends forth yearly its legions of frontier woodmen and try sasters. The en of e was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and ?at at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snip nose, so that it looked like a weathercock perched upon his spindle o tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the pro?le of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and ?uttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of Famine desding upon the earth or some scarecrow eloped from a ?eld.

    His school-house was a low building of one large room, rudely structed of logs, the windows partly glazed and partly patched with leaves of old copybooks. It was most ingeniously secured at vat hours by a withe twisted in the handle of the door and stakes set against the window-shutters, so that, though a thief might get in with perfect ease, he would ?nd some embarrassment iing out---an idea most probably borrowed by the architect, Yost Van Houten, from the mystery of an eel-pot. The school-house stood in a rather lonely but pleasant situation, just at the foot of a woody hill, with a brook running close by and a formidable birch tree growing at one end of it. From hehe low murmur of his pupils voices, ing over their lessons, might be heard in a drowsy summers day like the hum of a bee-hive, interrupted now and then by the authoritative voice of the master ione of   menace or and, or, peradventure, by the appalling sound of the birch as he urged some tardy loiterer along the ?owery path of knowledge. Truth to say, he was a stious man, and ever bore in mind the golden maxim, &quot;Spare the rod and spoil the child.&quot; Ichabod es scholars certainly were not spoiled.

    I would not have it imagined, however, that he was one of those cruel potentates of the school who joy in the smart of their subjects; on the trary, he administered justice with discrimination rather than severity, taking the burden off the backs of the weak and laying it on those of the strong. Your mere puny stripling, that wi the least ?ourish of the rod, assed by with indulgence; but the claims of justice were satis?ed by in?ig a double portion on some little tough, wrong-headed, broad-skirted Dutch ur, who sulked and swelled and grew dogged and sulleh the birch. All this he called &quot;doing his duty by their parents;&quot; and he never in?icted a chastisement without following it by the assurance, so solatory to the smarting ur, that &quot;he would remember it and thank him for it the lo day he had to live.&quot;

    When school-hours were over he was even the panion and playmate of the larger boys, and on holiday afternoons would voy some of the smaller ones home who happeo have pretty sisters ood housewives for mothers noted for the forts of the cupboard. I behooved him to keep on good terms with his pupils. The revenue arising from his school was small, and would have been scarcely suf?t to furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge feeder, and, though lank, had the dilating powers of an anada; but to help out his maintenance he was, acc to try  in those parts, boarded and lodged at the houses of the farmers whose children he instructed.

    With these he lived successively a week at a time, thus going the rounds of the neighborhood with all his worldly effects tied up in a cotton handkerchief.

    That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his rustic patrons, who are apt to sider the costs of schooling a grievous burden and sasters as mere drones, he had various ways of rendering himself both useful and agreeable. He assisted the farmers occasionally in the lighter labors of their farms, helped to make hay, mehe feook the horses to water, drove the cows from pasture, and cut wood for the winter ?re. He laid aside, too, all the dominant dignity and absolute sway with which he lorded it in his little empire, the school, and became wonderfully gentle and ingratiating. He found favor in the eyes of the mothers by petting the children, particularly the you; and like the lion bold, which whilom so magnanimously the lamb did hold, he would sit with a child on one knee and rock a cradle with his foot for whole hours together.

    In addition to his other vocations, he was the singing-master of the neighborhood and picked up many bright shillings by instrug the young folks in psalmody. It was a matter of no little vanity to him on Sundays to take his station in front of the church-gallery with a band of chosen singers, where, in his own mind, he pletely carried away the palm from the parson.

    Certain it is, his voice resounded far above all the rest of the gregation, and there are peculiar quavers still to be heard in that church, and which may even be heard half a mile off, quite to the opposite side of the mill-pond on a still Sunday m, which are said to be legitimately desded from the nose of Ichabod e. Thus, by divers little makeshifts in that ingenious way which is only denominated &quot;by hook and by crook,&quot; the worthy pedagogue got on tolerably enough, and was thought, by all who uood nothing of the labor of headwork, to have a wonderfully easy life of it.

    The saster is generally a man of some importan the female circle of a rural neighborhood, being sidered a kind of   idle, gentleman-like personage of vastly superior taste and aplishments to the rough try swains, and, indeed, inferior in learning only to the parson. His appearaherefore, is apt to occasion some little stir at the tea-table of a farmhouse and the addition of a supernumerary dish of cakes or sweetmeats, or, peradvehe parade of a silver tea-pot.

    Our man of letters, therefore, eculiarly happy in the smiles of all the try damsels. How he would ?gure among them in the churchyard between services on Sundays, gathering grapes for them from the wild vihat overrun the surrounding trees; reg for their amusement all the epitaphs oombstones; or sauntering, with a whole bevy of them, along the banks of the adjat mill-pond, while the more bashful try bumpkins hung sheepishly back, envying his superior elegand address.

    From his half-iti life, also, he was a kind of travelling gazette, carrying the whole budget of local gossip from house to house, so that his appearance was always greeted with satisfa. He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and erfect master of athers History of New England Witchcraft, in which, by the way, he most ?rmly and potently believed.

    He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness and simple credulity. His appetite for the marvellous and his powers of digesting it were equally extraordinary, and both had been increased by his residen this spellbound region. No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow. It was often his delight, after his school was dismissed iernoon, to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover b the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, and there  over old Mathers direful tales until the gathering dusk of the evening made the printed page a mere mist before his eyes. Then, as he wended his way by s and stream and awful woodland to the   farmhouse where he happeo be quartered, every sound of Nature at that witg hour ?uttered his excited imagination--the moan of the whip-poor-will* from the hillside; the boding cry of the tree-toad, that harbinger of storm; the dreary hooting of the screech-owl, or the sudden rustling ihicket of birds frightened from their roost. The ?re-?ies, too, which sparkled most vividly in the darkest places, now and then startled him as one of unhtness would stream across his path; and if, by ce, a huge blockhead of a beetle came winging his blundering ?ight against him, the poor varlet was ready to give up the ghost, with the idea that he was struck with a witchs token. His only resour such occasioher to drown thought or drive away evil spirits, was to sing psalm tunes; and the good people of Sleepy Hollow, as they sat by their doors of an evening, were often ?lled with awe at hearing his nasal melody, &quot;in linked sweetness long drawn out,&quot; ?oating from the distant hill or along the dusky road.

    * The whip-poor-will is a bird which is only heard at night. It receives its name from its note, which is thought to resemble those words.

    Anoth?er of his sources of fearful pleasure was to pass long winter evenings with the old Dutch wives as they sat spinning by the ?re, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering along the hearth, and listen to their marvellous tales of ghosts and goblins, and haunted ?elds, and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless horseman, alloping Hessian of the Hollow, as they sometimes called him. He would delight them equally by his aes of witchcraft and of the direful omens and portentous sights and sounds in the air which prevailed in the earlier times of ecticut, and would frighten them woefully with speculations upon ets and shooting stars, and with the alarming fact that the world did absolutely turn round and that they were half the   time topsy-turvy.

    But if there leasure in all this while snugly cuddling in the ey-er of a chamber that was all of a ruddy glow from the crag wood-?re, and where, of course, no spectre dared to show its face, it was dearly purchased by the terrors of his subsequent walk homewards. What fearful shapes and shadows beset his path amidst the dim and ghastly glare of a snowy night! With what wistful look did be eye every trembling ray of light streaming across the waste ?elds from some distant window! How often was he appalled by some shrub covered with snow, which, like a sheeted spectre, beset his very path! How often did he shrink with curdling awe at the sound of his own steps on the frosty crust beh his feet, and dread to look over his shoulder, lest he should behold some uncouth being tramping close behind him! And how often was he thrown into plete dismay by some rushing blast howling among the trees, in the idea that it was the Galloping Hessian on one of his nightly scs!

    All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness; and though he had seen many spectres in his time, and been more than once beset by Satan in divers shapes in his lonely perambulations, yet daylight put ao all these evils; and he would have passed a pleasant life of it, ie of the devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of witches put together, and that was--a woman.

    Among the musical disciples who assembled one evening in each week to receive his instrus in psalmody was Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and only child of a substantial Dutch farmer. She was a blooming lass of fresh eighteen, plump as a partridge, ripe aing and rosy-cheeked as one of her fathers peaches, and universally famed, not merely for her   beauty, but her vast expectations. She was withal a little of a coquette, as might be perceived even in her dress, which was a mixture of a and modern fashions, as most suited to set off her charms. She wore the ors of pure yellow gold which her great-great-grandmother had brought over from Saardam, the tempting stomacher of the olden time, and withal a provokingly short petticoat to display the prettiest foot and ankle in the try round.

    Ichabod e had a soft and foolish heart towards the sex, and it is not to be wo that so tempting a morsel soon found favor in his eyes, more especially after he had visited her in her paternal mansion. Old Baltus Van Tassel erfect picture of a thriving, tented, liberal-hearted farmer.  He seldom, it is true, seher his eyes or his thoughts beyond the boundaries of his own farm, but within those everything was snug, happy, and well-ditioned. He was satis?ed with his wealth but not proud of it, and piqued himself upon the hearty abundance, rather thayle, in which he lived. His stronghold was situated on the banks of the Hudson, in one of those green, sheltered, fertile nooks in which the Dutch farmers are so fond of ling. A great elm tree spread its broad branches over it, at the foot of which bubbled up a spring of the softest and sweetest water in a little well formed of a barrel, and then stole sparkling away through the grass to a neighb brook that bubbled along among alders and dwarf willows. Hard by the farmhouse w<big></big>as a vast barn, that might have served for a church, every window and crevice of which seemed bursting forth with the treasures of the farm; the ?ail was busily resounding within it from m to night; swallows and martins skimmed twittering about the eaves; and rows of pigeons, some with ourned up, as if watg the weather, some with their heads uheir wings or buried in their bosoms, and others, swelling, and g, and bowing about their dames, were enjoying the sunshine on the roof. Sleek, unwieldy porkers were grunting in the repose   and abundance of their pens, whence sallied forth, now and then, troops of sug pigs as if to snuff the air. A stately squadron of snowy geese were riding in an adjoining pond, voying whole ?eets of ducks; regiments of turkeys were gobbling through the farmyard, and guinea-fowls fretting about it, like ill-tempered housewives, with their peevish, distented cry. Before the barn-door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern of a husband, a warrior, and a ?leman, clapping his burnished wings and crowing in the pride and gladness of his heart--sometimes tearing up the earth with his feet, and then generously calling his ever-hungry family of wives and children to enjoy the rich morsel which he had discovered.

    The pedagogues mouth watered as he looked upon this sumptuous promise of luxurious winter fare. In his dev minds eye he pictured to himself every roasting-pig running about with a pudding in his belly and an apple in his mouth; the pigeons were snugly put to bed in a fortable pie and tucked in with a coverlet of crust; the geese were swimming in their own gravy; and the ducks pairing cosily in dishes, like snug married couples, with a det petency of onion sauce. In the porkers he saw carved out the future sleek side of ba and juicy relishing ham; not a turkey but he beheld daintily trussed up, with its gizzard us wing, and, peradventure, a necklace of savory sausages; and even bright ticleer himself lay sprawling on his ba a side-dish, with uplifted claws, as if craving that quarter which his chivalrous spirit disdaio ask while living.

    As the enraptured Ichabod fancied all this, and as he rolled his great green eyes over the fat meadow-lands, the rich ?elds of wheat, of rye, of buckwheat, and Indian , and the orchards burdened with ruddy fruit, which surrouhe warm te of Van Tassel, his heart yearned after the damsel who was to i these domains, and his imagination expanded with the idea how   they might be readily turned into cash and the money ied in immeracts of wild land and shingle palaces in the wilderness. Nay, his busy fancy already realized his hopes, and preseo him the blooming Katrina, with a whole family of children, mounted oop of a wagon loaded with household trumpery, with pots ales danglih, and he beheld himself bestriding a pag mare, with a colt at her heels, setting out for Kentucky, Tennessee, or the Lord knows where.

    Wheered the house the quest of his heart was plete.

    It was one of those spacious farmhouses with high-ridged but lowly-sloping roofs, built iyle handed down from the ?rst Dutch settlers, the low projeg eaves f a piazza along the front capable of being closed up in bad weather. Uhis were hung ?ails, harness, various utensils of husbandry, as for ?shing in the neighb river. Benches were built along the sides for summer use, and a great spinning-wheel at one end and a  at the other showed the various uses to which this important porch might be devoted. From this piazza the w Ichabod ehe hall, whied the tre of the mansion and the place of usual residence. Here rows of resple pewter, ranged on a long dresser, dazzled his eyes.

    In one er stood a huge bag of wool ready to be spun; in another a quantity of linsey-woolsey just from the loom; ears of Indian  and strings of dried apples and peaches hung in gay festoons along the walls, mingled with the gaud of red peppers; and a door left ajar gave him a peep into the best parlor, where the claw-footed chairs and dark mahogany tables shone like mirrors; andirons, with their apanying shovel and tongs, glistened from their covert of asparagus tops; mock-es and ch-shells decorated the mantelpiece; strings of various-colored birds eggs were suspended above it; a great ostrish egg was hung from the tre of the room, and a er cupboard, knowingly left open, displayed immereasures of old silver and well-mended a.

    From the moment Ichabod laid his eyes upon these regions of delight the peace of his mind was at an end, and his only study was how to gain the affes of the peerless daughter of Van Tassel. In this enterprise, however, he had more real dif?culties than generally fell to the lot of a knight-errant of yore, who seldom had anything but giants, enters, ?ery dragons, and such-like easily-quered adversaries to tend with, and had to make his way merely through gates of iron and brass and walls of adamant to the castle keep, where the lady of his heart was ed; all which he achieved as easily as a man would carve his way to the tre of a Christmas pie, and then the lady gave him her hand as a matter of course. Ichabod, on the trary, had to win his way to the heart of a try coquette beset with a labyrinth of whims and caprices, which were forever presenting new dif?culties and impediments, and he had to enter a host of fearful adversaries of real ?esh and blood, the numerous rustic admirers who beset every portal to her heart, keeping a watchful and angry eye upon each other, but ready to ?y out in the on cause against any new petitor.

    Among these the most formidable was a burly, r, roistering blade of the name of Abraham--or, acc to the Dutch abbreviation, Brom--Van Brunt, the hero of the try round, which rang with his feats of strength and hardihood. He was broad-shouldered and double-jointed, with short curly black hair and a bluff but not unpleasant tenance, having a mingled air of fun and arrogance. From his Herculean frame and great powers of limb, he had received the niame of BROM BONES, by which he was universally known. He was famed freat knowledge and skill in horsemanship, being as dexterous on horseback as a Tartar. He was foremost at all races and cock?ghts, and, with the asdancy which bodily strength acquires in rustic life, was the umpire in all disputes, setting his hat on one side and giving his decisions with an air and tone admitting of no gainsay or   appeal. He was always ready for either a ?ght or a frolic, but had more mischief than ill-will in his position; and with all his overbearing roughhere was a strong dash of waggish good-humor at bottom. He had three or four boon panions wharded him as their model, and at the head of whom he scoured the try, attending every se of feud or merriment for miles around. In cold weather he was distinguished by a fur cap surmounted with a ?aunting foxs tail; and when the folks at a try gathering descried this well-know at a distance, whisking about among a squad of hard riders, they always stood by for a squall. Sometimes his crew would be heard dashing along past the farm-houses at midnight with whoop and halloo, like a troop of Don Cossacks, and the old dames, startled out of their sleep, would listen for a moment till the hurry-scurry had clattered by, and then exclaim, &quot;Ay, there goes Brom Bones and his gang!&quot; The neighbors looked upon him with a mixture of awe, admiration, and good-will, and when any madcap prank or rustic brawl occurred in the viity always shook their heads and warranted Brom Bones was at the bottom of it.

    This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the blooming Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries, and, though his amorous toyings were something like the gentle caresses and endearments of a bear, yet it was whispered that she did not altogether disce his hopes. Certain it is, his advances were signals for rival didates to retire who felt no ination to cross a line in his amours; insomuch, that when his horse was seeo Van Tassels paling on a Sunday night, a sure sign that his master was c--or, as it is termed, &quot;sparking&quot;--within, all other suitors passed by in despair and carried the war into other quarters.

    Such was the formidable rival with whom Ichabod e had to tend, and, sidering all things, a stouter man than he would have shrunk from the petition and a wiser (*)man would have   despaired. He had, however, a happy mixture of pliability and perseveran his nature; he was in form and spirit like a supple  jack--yielding, but although; though he bent, he never broke and though he bowed beh the slightest pressure, yet the moment it was away, jerk! he was as ered carried his head as high as ever.

    To have taken the ?eld openly against his rival would have been madness for he was not man to be thwarted in his amours, any more than that stormy lover, Achilles. Ichabod, therefore, made his advances in a quiet aly-insinuating manner. Under cover of his character of singing-master, he made frequent visits at the farm-house; not that he had anything to apprehend from the meddlesome interference of parents, which is so often a stumbling-blo the path of lovers. Balt Van Tassel was an easy, indulgent soul; he loved his daughter better even than his pipe, and, like a reasonable man and an excellent father, let her have her way ihing. His notable little wife, too, had enough to do to attend to her housekeeping and manage her poultry for, as she sagely observed, ducks and geese are foolish things and must be looked after, but girls  take care of themselves.

    Thus while the busy dame bustled about the house or plied her spinning-wheel at one end of the piazza, ho Balt would sit smoking his evening pipe at the other, watg the achievements of a little wooden warrior who, armed with a sword in each hand, was most valiantly ?ghting the wind on the pinnacle of the barn.

    In the meantime, Ichabod would carry on his suit with the daughter by the side of the spring uhe great elm, or sauntering along iwilight, that hour so favorable to the lovers eloquence.

    I profess not to knoomes are wooed  and won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration. Some seem to have but one vulnerable point, or door of access, while otheres have a thousand avenues and may be captured in a thousand   different ways. It is a great triumph of skill to gain the former, but still  greater proof of generalship to maintain possession of  the latter, for the man must battle for his fortress at every door and window. He who wins a thousand os is therefore entitled to some renown, but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette is indeed a hero.

    Certain it is, this was not the case with the redoubtable Brom Bones; and from the moment Ichabod e made his advahe is of the former evidently deed; his horse was no longer see the palings on Sunday nights, and a deadly feud gradually arose between him and the preceptor of Sleepy Hollow.

    Brom, who had a degree h chivalry in his nature, would fain have carried matters to open warfare, and have settled their pretensions to the lady acc to the mode of those most cise and simple reasoners, the knights-errant of yore--by single bat; but Ichabod was too scious of the superiht of his adversary to ehe lists against him: he had overheard a boast of Bohat he would &quot;double the saster up and lay him on a shelf of his own school-house;&quot;

    and he was too wary to give him an opportunity. There was somethiremely provoking in this obstinately paci?c system; it left Brom  no alternative but to draw upon the funds of rustic waggery in his disposition and to play off boorish practical jokes upon his rival. Ichabod became the object of whimsical persecution to Bones and his gang h riders. They harried his hitherto peaceful domains; smoked out his singing school by stopping up the ey; broke into the schoolhouse at night in spite of its formidable fastenings of withe and window stakes, and turned everything topsy-turvy; so that the poor saster began to think all the witches in the try held their meetings there. But, what was still more annoying, Brom took all opportunities of turning him into ridicule in presence of his mistress, and had a sdrel dog whom he taught to whine in the   most ludianner, and introduced as a rival of Ichabods, to instruct her in psalmody.

    In this way, matters went on for some time without produg any material effe the relative situation of the tending powers. On a ?umnal afternoon Ichabod, in pensive mood, sat enthroned on the lofty stool whence he usually watched all the s of his little literary realm. In his hand he swayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power; the birch of justice reposed on three nails behind the throne, a stant terror to evildoers; while on the desk before him might be seen sundry traband articles and prohibited oed upon the persons of idle urs, such as half-munched apples, popguns, whirligigs, ?y-cages, and whole legions of rampant little paper gamecocks. Apparently there had been some appalling act of justice retly in?icted, for his scholars were all busily i upon their books or slyly whispering behind them with one eye kept upon the master, and a kind of buzzing stillness reighroughout the school-room. It was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a negro in tow-cloth jacket and trowsers, a round-ed fragment of a hat like the ercury, and mounted on the back of a ragged, wild, half-broken colt, which he managed with a rope by way of halter. He came clattering up to the school door with an invitation to Ichabod to attend a merry-making or &quot;quilting frolic&quot; to be held that evening at Mynheer Van Tassels; and, having delivered his message with that air of importand effort at ?ne language which a negro is apt to display oy embassies of the kind, he dashed over the brook, and was seen scampering a the hollow, full of the importand hurry of his mission.

    All was now bustle and hubbub ie quiet school-room. The scholars were hurried through their lessons without stopping at tri?es; those who were nimble skipped over half with impunity, and those who were tardy had a smart application now and then in   the rear to qui their speed or help them over a tall word.

    Books were ?ung aside without being put away on the shelves, inkstands were overturned, behrown down, and the whole school was turned loose an hour before the usual time, bursting forth like a legion of young imps, yelping and racketing about the green in joy at their early emancipation.

    The gallant Ichabod now spent at least ara half hour at his toilet, brushing and furbishing up his best, and indeed only, suit of rusty black, and arranging his locks by a bit of broken looking-glass that hung up in the school-house. That he might make his appearance before his mistress irue style of a cavalier, he borrowed a horse from the farmer with whom he was domiciliated, a choleric old Dut of the name of Hans Van Ripper, and, thus gallantly mounted, issued forth like a knight-errant i of adventures. But it is meet I should, irue spirit of romantic stive some at of the looks and equipments of my hero and his steed. The animal he bestrode was a broken-down plough-horse that had outlived almost everything but his viciousness. He was gaunt and shagged, with a ewe ned a head like a hammer; his rusty mane and tail were tangled and knotted with burrs; one eye had lost its pupil and was glaring and spectral, but the other had the gleam of a genuine devil in it. Still, he must have had ?re ale in his day, if we may judge from the name he bore of Gunpowder. He had, in fact, been a favorite steed of his masters, the choleri Ripper, who was a furious rider, and had infused, very probably, some of his own spirit into the animal; for, old and broken down as he looked, there was more of the lurking devil in him than in any young ?lly in the try.

    Ichabod was a suitable ?gure for such a steed. He rode with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the pommel of the saddle; his sharp elbows stuck out like grasshoppers; he carried his whip perpendicularly in his hand like a sceptre; and   as his horse jogged oion of his arms was not uhe ?apping of a pair of wings. A small wool hat rested oop of his nose, for so his sty strip of forehead might be called, and the skirts of his black coat ?uttered out almost to his horses tail. Such was the appearance of Ichabod and his steed as they shambled out of the gate of Hans Van Ripper, and it was altogether su apparition as is seldom to be met with in broad daylight.

    It was, as I have said, a ?umnal day, the sky was clear and serene, and Nature wore that rid golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundahe forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes e, purple, and scarlet. Streaming ?les of wild-ducks began to make their appearance high in the air; the bark of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of beed hickory nuts, and the pensive whistle of the quail at intervals from the neighb stubble-?eld.

    The small birds were taking their farewell bas. In the fulness of their revelry they ?uttered, chirping and frolig, from bush to bush and tree to tree, capricious from the very profusion and variety aro<samp>..</samp>und them. There was the ho cock robin, the favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its loud querulous note; and the twittering blackbirds, ?ying in sable clouds; and the golden-winged woodpecker, with his crimso, his broad black get, and splendid plumage; and the cedar-bird, with its red-tipt wings and yellow-tipt tail and its little monteiro cap of feathers; and the blue jay, that noisy b, in his gay light-blue coat and white under-clothes, screaming and chattering, bobbing and nodding and bowing, and pretending to be on good terms with every songster of the grove.

    As Ichabod jogged slowly on his way his eye, ever open to every   symptom of ary abundance, ranged with delight over the treasures of jolly Autumn. On all sides he beheld vast store of apples--some hanging in oppressive opulen the trees, some gathered into baskets and barrels for the market, others heaped up in rich piles for the cider-press. Farther on he beheld great ?elds of Indian , with its golden ears peeping from their leafy coverts and holding out the promise of cakes and hasty pudding; and the yellow pumpkins lyih them, turning up their fair round bellies to the sun, and giving ample prospects of the most luxurious of pies; and anon he passed the fragrant buckwheat-?elds, breathing the odor of the beehive, and as he beheld them soft anticipations stole over his mind of dainty slapjacks, well buttered and garnished with honey or treacle by the delicate little dimpled hand of Katrina Van Tassel.

    Thus feeding his mind with many sweet thoughts and &quot;sugared suppositions,&quot; he journeyed along the sides of a range of hills which look out upon some of the goodliest ses of the mighty Hudson. The sun gradually wheeled his broad disk down into the west. The wide bosom of the Tappan Zee lay motionless and glassy, excepting that here and there a gentle undulation waved and prolohe blue shadow of the distant mountain. A few amber clouds ?oated in the sky, without a breath of air to move them.

    The horizon was of a ?ne golden tint, ging gradually into a pure apple green, and from that into the deep blue of the mid-heaven. A slanting ray lingered on the woody crests of the precipices that  some parts of the river, giving greater depth to the dark-gray and purple of their rocky sides. A sloop was l in the distance, dropping slowly down with the tide, her sail hanging uselessly against the mast, and as the re?e of the sky gleamed along the still water it seemed as if the vessel was suspended in the air.

    It was toward evening that Ichabod arrived at the castle of the Heer Van Tassel, which he found thronged with the pride and   ?ower of the adjat try--old farmers, a spare leathern-faced race, in homespun coats and breeches, blue stogs, huge shoes, and mag pewter buckles; their brisk withered little dames, in close crimped caps, long-waisted showns, homespuicoats, with scissors and pincushions and gay calico pockets hanging oside; buxom lasses, almost as antiquated as their mothers, excepting where a straw hat, a ?ne ribbon, or perhaps a white frock, gave symptoms of city innovation; the sons, in short square-skirted coats with rows of stupendous brass buttons, and their hair generally queued in the fashion of the times, especially if they could procure an eel-skin for the purpose, it beieemed throughout the try as a potent nourisher and strengthener of the hair.

    Brom Bones, however, was the hero of the se, having e to the gathering on his favorite steed Daredevil--a creature, like himself full of metal and mischief, and whio o himself could manage. He was, in faoted for preferring vicious animals, given to all kinds of tricks, which kept the rider in stant risk of his neck, for he held a tractable, well-broken horse as unworthy of a lad of spirit.

    Fain would I pause to dwell upon the world of charms that burst upon the enraptured gaze of my hero as he ehe state parlor of Van Tassels mansion. Not those of the bevy of buxom lasses with their luxurious display of red and white, but the ample charms of a gech try tea-table in the sumptuous time of autumn. Such heaped-up platters of cakes of various and almost indescribable kinds, known only to experienced Dutch housewives! There was the doughty doughnut, the tenderer oily koek, and the crisp and crumbling cruller; sweet cakes and short cakes, ginger cakes and honey cakes, and the whole family of cakes. And then there were apple pies and peach pies and pumpkin pies; besides slices of ham and smoked beef; and moreover delectable dishes of preserved plums and peaches and pears and   quinces; not to mention broiled shad and roasted chis; together with bowls of milk and cream,--all mingled higgledy-piggledy, pretty much as I have eed them, with the motherly teapot sending up its clouds of vapor from the midst. Heavehe mark! I want breath and time to discuss this ba as it deserves, and am too eager to get on with my story. Happily, Ichabod e was not in so great a hurry as his historian, but did ample justice to every dainty.

    He was a kind and thankful creature, whose heart dilated in proportion as his skin was ?lled with good cheer, and whose spirits rose with eating as some mens do with drink. He could not help, too, rolling his large eyes round him as he ate, and chug with the possibility that he might one day be lord of all this se of almost unimaginable luxury and splendor. Thehought, how soourn his back upon the old school-house, snap his ?ngers in the face of Hans Van Ripper and every gardly patron, and kiy iti pedagogue out of doors that should dare to call him rade!

    Old Baltus Van Tassel moved about among his guests with a face dilated with tent and good-humor, round and jolly as the harvest moon. His hospitable attentions were brief, but expressive, being ed to a shake of the hand, a slap on the shoulder, a loud laugh, and a pressing invitation to &quot;fall to ahemselves.&quot;

    And now the sound of the musi the on room, or hall, summoo the dahe musi was an old gray-headed negro who had beei orchestra of the neighborhood for more than half a tury. His instrument was as old and battered as himself. The greater part of the time he scraped on two or three strings, apanying every movement of the bow with a motion of the head, bowing almost to the ground and stamping with his foot whenever a fresh couple were to start.

    Ichobod prided himself upon his dang as much as upon his vocal powers. Not a limb, not a ?bre about him was idle; and to have seen his loosely hung frame in full motion and clattering about the room you would have thought Saint Vitus himself, that blessed patron of the dance, was ?guring before you in person. He was the admiration of all the negroes, who, having gathered, of all ages and sizes, from the farm and the neighborhood, stood f a pyramid of shining black faces at every door and window, gazing with delight at the se, rolling their white eyeballs, and showing grinning rows of ivory from ear to ear. How could the ?ogger of urs be otherwise than animated and joyous? The lady of his heart was his partner in the dance, and smiling graciously in reply to all his amorous oglings, while Brom Bones, sorely smitten with love and jealousy, sat brooding by himself in one er.

    When the dance was at an end Ichabod was attracted to a knot of the sager folks, who, with old Van Tassel, sat smoking at one end of the piazza gossiping over former times and drawing out long stories about the war.

    This neighborhood, at the time of which I am speaking, was one of those highly favored places which abound with icle and great men. The British and Ameri line had run near it during the war; it had therefore been the se of marauding and ied with refugees, cow-boys, and all kinds of border chivalry. Just suf?t time had elapsed to enable each storyteller to dress up his tale with a little being ?, and in the indistiness of his recolle to make himself the hero of every exploit.

    There was the story of Doffue Martling, a large blue-bearded Dut, who had nearly taken a British frigate with an old iron nine-pounder from a mud breastwork, only that his gun burst at   the sixth discharge. And there was an old gentleman who shall be nameless, being too rich a myo be lightly mentioned, who, itle of Whiteplains, being an excellent master of defence, parried a musket-ball with a small sword, insomuch that he absolutely felt it whiz round the blade and glance off at the hilt: in proof of which he was ready at any time to show the sword, with the hilt a little bent. There were several more that had been equally great in the ?eld, not one of whom but ersuaded that he had a siderable hand in bringing the war to a happy termination.

    But all these were nothing to the tales of ghosts and apparitions that succeeded. The neighborhood is ri legendary treasures of the kind. Local tales and superstitions thrive best in these sheltered, loled retreats but are trampled under foot by the shifting throng that forms the population of most of our try places. Besides, there is no encement fhosts in most of our villages, for they have scarcely had time to ?nish their ?rst nap and turn themselves in their graves before their surviving friends have travelled away from the neighborhood; so that wheurn out at night to walk their rounds they have no acquaintance left to call upon. This is perhaps the reason why we so seldom hear of ghosts except in our loablished Dutunities.

    The immediate causes however, of the prevalence of supernatural stories in these parts, was doubtless owing to the viity of Sleepy Hollow. There was a tagion in the very air t<mark></mark>hat blew from that haunted region; it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams and fancies iing all the land. Several of the Sleepy Hollow people were present at Van Tassels, and, as usual, were doling out their wild and wonderful legends. Many dismal tales were told about funeral trains and m cries and wailings heard and seen about the great tree where the unfortunate Major Andre was taken, and which stood in the neighborhood. Some   mention was made also of the woman in white that hauhe dark glen at Raven Rock, and was often heard to shriek on winter nights before a storm, having perished there in the snow. The chief part of the stories, however, turned upon the favorite spectre of Sleepy Hollow, the headless horseman, who had been heard several times of late patrolling the try, and, it was said, tethered his horse nightly among the graves in the churchyard.

    The sequestered situation of this church seems always to have made it a favorite haunt of troubled spirits. It stands on a knoll surrounded by locust trees and lofty elms, from among which its det whitewashed walls shine modestly forth, like Christian purity beaming through the shades of retirement. A gentle slope desds from it to a silver sheet of water bordered by high trees, between which peeps may be caught at the blue hills of the Hudson. To look upon its grass-grown yard, where the sunbeams seem to sleep so quietly, one would think that there at least the dead might rest in peace. On one side of the church extends a wide woody dell, along, which raves a large brook among broken rocks and trunks of fallen trees. Over a deep black part of the stream, not far from the church, was formerly thrown a wooden bridge; the road that led to it and the bridge itself were thickly shaded by ing trees, which cast a gloom about it even in the daytime, but occasioned a fearful darkness at night.

    Such was one of the favorite haunts of the headless horseman, and the place where he was most frequently entered. The tale was told of old Brouwer, a most heretical disbeliever in ghosts, how he met the horsemaurning from his foray into Sleepy Hollow, and was obliged to get up behind him; how they galloped over bush and brake, over hill and s, until they reached the bridge, when the horseman suddenly turned into a skeleton, threw old Brouwer into the brook, and sprang away over the tree-tops with a clap of thunder.

    This story was immediately matched by a thrice-marvellous adventure of Brom Bones, who made light of the galloping Hessian as an arrant jockey. He af?rmed that ourning one night from the neighb village of Sing-Sing he had beeaken by this midnight trooper; that he had offered to race with him for a bowl of punch, and should have won it too, for Daredevil beat the goblin horse all hollow, but just as they came to the church bridge the Hessian bolted and vanished in a ?ash of ?re.

    All these tales, told in that drowsy uoh which men talk in the dark, the tenances of the listeners only now and then receiving a casual gleam from the glare of a pipe, sank deep in the mind of Ichabod. He repaid them in kind with large extracts from his invaluable author, ather, and added many marvellous events that had taken pla his native state of ecticut and fearful sights which he had seen in his nightly walks about Sleepy Hollow.

    The revel now gradually broke up. The old farmers gathered together their families in their wagons, and were heard for some time rattling along the hollow roads and over the distant hills.

    Some of the damsels mounted on pillions behind their favorite swains, and their light-hearted laughter, mingling with the clatter of hoofs, echoed along the silent woodlands, sounding fainter and fainter until they gradually died away, and the late se of noise and frolic was all silent aed. Ichabod only lingered behind, acc to the  of try lovers, to have a tete-a-tete with the heiress, fully vihat he was now on the high road to success. assed at this interview I will not pretend to say, for in fact I do not know.

    Something, however, I fear me, must have gone wrong, for he certainly sallied forth, after nreat interval, with an air quite desolate and chop-fallen.  Oh these women! these women!

    Could that girl have been playing off any of her coquettish tricks? Was her encement of the poor pedagogue all a mere   sham to secure her quest of his rival? Heaven only knows, not I! Let it suf?ce to say, Ichabod stole forth with the air of one who had been sag a hen-roost, rather than a fair ladys heart. Without looking to the right or left to notice the se of rural wealth on which he had so often gloated, he went straight to the stable, and with several hearty cuffs and kicks roused his steed most uncourteously from the fortable quarters in which he was soundly sleeping, dreaming of mountains of  and oats and whole valleys of timothy and clover.

    It was the very witg time of night that Ichabod, heavy-hearted and crestfallen, pursued his travel homewards along the sides of the lofty hills which rise above Tarry Town, and which he had traversed so cheerily iernoon. The hour was as dismal as himself. Far below him the Tappan Zee spread its dusky and indistinct waste of waters, with here and there the tall mast of a sloop riding quietly at anchor uhe land. In the dead hush of midnight he could evehe barking of the watch-dog from the opposite shore of the Hudson; but it was so vague and faint as only to give an idea of his distance from this faithful panion of man. Now and then, too, the long-drawn crowing of a cock, actally awakened, would sound far, far off, from some farm-house away among the hills; but it was like a dreaming sound in his ear. No signs of life occurred near him, but occasionally the melancholy chirp of a cricket, or perhaps the guttural twang of a bull-frog from a neighb marsh, as if sleeping unfortably and turning suddenly in his bed.

    All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard iernoon now came crowding upon his recolle. The night grew darker and darker; the stars seemed to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally had them from his sight. He had never felt so lonely and dismal. He was, moreover, approag the very place where many of the ses of the ghost-stories had been laid. In the tre of the road stood an enormous tulip tree   which towered like a giant above all the other trees of the neighborhood and formed a kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost to the earth and rising again into the air. It was ected with the tragical story of the unfortunate Andre, who had been taken prisoner hard by, and was universally known by the name of Major Aree. The on people regarded it with a mixture of resped superstition, partly out of sympathy for the fate of its ill-starred namesake, and partly from the tales of strange sights and doleful lamentations told ing it.

    As Ichabod approached this fearful tree he began to whistle: he thought his whistle was answered; it was but a blast sweeping sharply through the dry branches. As he approached a little nearer he thought he saw something white hanging in the midst of the tree: he paused and ceased whistling, but on looking more narrowly perceived that it lace where the tree had been scathed by lightning and the white wood laid bare. Suddenly he heard a groan: his teeth chattered and his knees smote against the saddle; it was but the rubbing of one huge bough upon another as they were swayed about by the breeze. He passed the tree in safety, but new perils lay before him.

    About two hundred yards from the tree a small brook crossed the road and ran into a marshy and thickly-wooded glen known by the name of Wileys S. A few rough logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge over this stream. On that side of the road where the brook ehe wood a group of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grape-vihrew a cavernous gloom over it. To pass this bridge was the severest trial. It was at this identical spot that the unfortunate Andre was captured, and uhe covert of those chestnuts and vines were the sturdy yeomen cealed who surprised him. This has ever since been sidered a hauream, and fearful are the feelings of the schoolboy   who has to pass it aloer dark.

    As he approached the stream his heart began to thump; he summoned up, however, all his resolution, gave his horse half a score of kicks in the ribs, and attempted to dash briskly across the bridge; but instead of starting forward, the perverse old animal made a lateral movement and ran broadside against the fence.

    Ichabod, whose fears increased with the delay, jerked the reins oher side and kicked lustily with the trary foot: it was all in vain; his steed started, it is true, but it was only to pluo the opposite side of the road into a thicket of brambles and alder bushes. The saster now bestowed both whip and heel upoarveling ribs of old Gunpowder, who dashed forward, snuf?ng and sn, but came to a stand just by the bridge with a suddehat had nearly sent his rider sprawling over his head. Just at this moment a plashy tramp by the side of the bridge caught the sensitive ear of Ichabod. In the dark shadow of the grove on the margin of the brook he beheld something huge, misshapen, black, and t. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantister ready t uporaveller.

    The hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon his head with terror. What was to be doo turn and ?y was now too late; and besides, what ce was there of esg ghost oblin, if such it was, which could ride upon the wings of the wind?

    Summoning up, therefore, a show of ce, he demanded in stammering ats, &quot;Who are you?&quot; He received no reply. He repeated his demand in a still mitated voice. Still there was no answer. Once more he cudgelled the sides of the in?exible Gunpowder, and, shutting his eyes, broke forth with involuntary fervor into a psalm tune. Just then the shadowy object of alarm put itself in motion, and with a scramble and a bound stood at on the middle of the road. Though the night was dark and dismal, yet the form of the unknown might now in some degree be   ascertained. He appeared to be a horseman of large dimensions and mounted on a black horse of powerful frame. He made no offer of molestation or sociability, but kept aloof on one side of the road, jogging along on the blind side of old Gunpowder, who had now got over his fright and waywardness.

    Ichabod, who had no relish for this strange midnight panion, ahought himself of the adventure of Brom Bones with the Galloping Hessian, now quied his steed in hopes of leaving him behind. The stranger, however, quied his horse to an equal pace. Ichabod pulled up, and fell into a walk, thinking to lag behind; the other did the same. His heart began to sink within him; he endeavored to resume his psalm tune, but his parched tongue clove to the roof of his mouth and he could not utter a stave. There was something in the moody and dogged silence of this pertinacious panion that was mysterious and appalling. It was soon fearfully ated for. On mounting a rising ground, which brought the ?gure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, giganti height and muf?ed in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-stru perceiving that he was headless! but his horror was still more increased on  that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of the saddle. His terror rose to desperation, he rained a shower of kicks and blows upon Gunpowder, hoping by a sudden movement to give his panion the slip; but the spectre started full jump with him. Away, then, they dashed through thid thin, stones ?ying and sparks ?ashing at every bound. Ichabods ?imsy garments ?uttered in the air as he stretched his long lank body away over his horses head in the eagerness of his ?ight.

    They had now reached the road which turns off to Sleepy Hollow; but Gunpowder, who seemed possessed with a demon, instead of keeping up it, made an opposite turn and plunged headlong down hill to the left. This road leads through a sandy hollow shaded   by trees for about a quarter of a mile, where it crosses the bridge famous in goblin story, and just beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the whitewashed church.

    As yet the panic of the steed bad given his unskillful rider an apparent advantage in the chase; but just as he had got halfway through the hollow the girths of the saddle gave away and he felt it slipping from under him. He seized it by the pommel and endeavored to hold it ?rm, but in vain, and had just time to save himself by clasping old Gunpowder round the neck, when the saddle fell to the earth, and he heard it trampled under foot by his pursuer. For a moment the terror of Hans Van Rippers assed across his mind, for it was his Sunday saddle; but this was no time for petty fears; the goblin was hard on his haunches, and (unskilled rider that he was) he had much ado to maintain his seat, sometimes slipping on one side, sometimes on another, and sometimes jolted on the high ridge of his horses back-boh a violehat he verily feared would cleave him asunder.

    An opening irees now cheered him with the hopes that the church bridge was at hand. The waveriion of a silver star in the bosom of the brook told him that he was not mistaken.

    He saw the walls of the church dimly glaring uhe trees beyond. He recollected the place where Brom Bones ghostly petitor had disappeared. &quot;If I  but reach that bridge,&quot;

    thought Ichabod, &quot;I am safe.&quot; Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind him; he even fahat he felt his hot breath. Another vulsive ki the ribs, and old Gunpowder sprang upon the bridge; he thundered over the resounding planks; he gaihe opposite side; and now Ichabod cast a look behind to see if his pursuer should vanish, acc to rule, in a ?ash of ?re and brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. It entered his ium with a tremendous crash;   he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider passed by like a whirlwind.

    The  m the old horse was found, without his saddle and with he bridle under his feet, soberly cropping the grass at his masters gate. Ichabod did not make his appeara breakfast; dinner-hour came, but no Ichabod. The boys assembled at the school-house and strolled idly about the banks of the brook but no saster. Hans Van Ripper now began to feel some uneasiness about the fate of poor Ichabod and his saddle. An inquiry was set on foot, and after diligent iigation they came upon his traces. In one part of the road leading to the church was found the saddle trampled in the dirt; the tracks of horses hoofs, deeply dented in the road and evidently at furious speed, were traced to the bridge, beyond which, on the bank of a broad part of the brook, where the water ran deep and black, was found the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a spattered pumpkin.

    The brook was searched, but the body of the saster was not to be discovered. Hans Van Ripper, as executor of his estate, examihe bundle which tained all his worldly effects. They sisted of two shirts and a half, two stocks for the neck, a pair or two of worsted stogs, an old pair of corduroy small-clothes, a rusty razor, a book of psalm tunes full of dogs ears, and a broken pitch-pipe. As to the books and furniture of the school-house, they beloo the unity, excepting athers History of Witchcraft, a New England Almanad a book of dreams and fortuelling; in which last was a sheet of foolscap much scribbled and blotted in several fruitless attempts to make a copy of verses in honor of the heiress of Van Tassel. These magic books and the poetic scrawl were forthwith sigo the ?ames by Hans Van Ripper, who from that time forward determio send his children no more to school,  that he never knew any good e of this same reading   and writing. Whatever mohe saster possessed--and he had received his quarters pay but a day or two before--he must have had about his person at the time of his disappearance.

    The mysterious event caused much speculation at the chur the following Sunday. Knots of gazers and gossips were collected in the churchyard, at the bridge, and at the spot where the hat and pumpkin had been found. The stories of Brouwer, of Bones, and a whole budget of others were called to mind, and when they had diligently sidered them all, and pared them with the symptoms of the present case, they shook their heads and came to the clusion that Ichabod had been carried off by the galloping Hessian. As he was a bachelor and in nobodys debt, nobody troubled his head any more about him, the school was removed to a different quarter of the hollow and another pedagogue reigned in his stead.

    It is true an old farmer, who had been down to New York on a visit several years after, and from whom this at of the ghostly adventure was received, brought home the intelligehat Ichabod e was still alive; that he had left the neighborhood, partly through fear of the goblin and Hans Van Ripper, and partly in morti?cation at having been suddenly dismissed by the heiress; that he had ged his quarters to a distant part of the try, had kept school and studied law at the same time, had been admitted to the bar, turned politi eleeered, written for the neers, and ?nally had been made a justice of the Ten Pound Court. Brom Booo, who shortly after his rivals disappearance ducted the blooming Katrina in triumph to the altar, was observed to look exceedingly knowing whehe story of Ichabod was related, and always burst into a hearty laugh at the mention of the pumpkin; which led some to suspect that he knew more about the matter than he chose to tell.

    The old try wives, however, who are the best judges of these matters, maintain to this day that Ichabod irited away by supernatural means; and it is a favorite story often told about the neighborhood round the interevening ?re. The bridge became more than ever an object of superstitious awe, and that may be the reason why the road has been altered of late years, so as to approach the church by the border of the mill-pond. The schoolhouse, beied, sooo decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the unfortunate pedagogue; and the plough-boy, l homeward of a still summer evening, has often fancied his voice at a distance ting a melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow.

    POSTSCRIPT FOUND IN THE HANDWRITING OF MR. KNICKERBOCKER.

    THE preg tale is given almost in the precise words in which I heard it related at a Corporatioing of the a city of Manhattoes, at which were present many of its sagest and most illustrious burghers. The narrator leasant, shabby, gentlemanly old fellow in pepper-and-salt clothes, with a sadly humorous face, and one whom I strongly suspected of being poor, he made such efforts to be eaining. When his story was cluded there was much laughter and approbation, particularly from two or three deputy aldermen who had been asleep the greater part of the time. There was, however, oall, dry-looking old gentleman, with beetling eyebrows, who maintained a grave and rather severe face throughout, now and then folding his arms, ining his head, and looking down upon the ?oor, as if turning a doubt over in his mind. He was one of your wary men, who never laugh but upon good grounds--when they have reason and the law on their side. When the mirth of the rest of the pany had subsided and silence was restored, he leaned one arm on the   elbow of his chair, and stig the other akimbo, demanded, with a slight but exceedingly sage motion of the head and tra of the brow, what was the moral of the story and what it went to prove.

    The story-teller, who was just putting a glass of wio his lips as a refreshment after his toils, paused for a moment, looked at his inquirer with an air of in?nite deference, and, l the glass slowly to the table, observed that the story was intended most logically to prove--

    &quot;That there is no situation in life but has its advantages and pleasures--provided we will but take a joke as we ?nd it; &quot;That, therefore, he that runs races with goblin troopers is likely to have rough riding of it.

    &quo, for a try saster to be refused the hand of a Dutch heiress is a certaio high preferment iate.&quot;

    The cautious old gentleman knit his brows tenfold closer after this explanation, being sorely puzzled by the ratioation of the syllogism, while methought the one in pepper-and-salt eyed him with something of a triumphant leer. At length he observed that all this was very well, but still he thought the story a little oravagant--there were one or two points on which he had his doubts.

    &quot;Faith, sir,&quot; replied the story-teller, &quot;as to that matter, I dont believe one-half of it myself.&quot;

    D. K.

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