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It is true , an old farmer , who had been down to New York on a visit several years after , and from whom this account of the ghostly adventure was received , brought home the intelligence that Ichabod Crane was still alive ; that he had left the neighborhood partly through fear of the goblin and Hans Van Ripper , and partly in mortification at having been suddenly dismissed by the heiress ; that he had changed his quarters to a distant part of the country ; had kept school and studied law at the same time ; had been admitted to the bar ; turned politician ; electioneered ; written for the newspapers ; and finally had been made a justice of the Ten Pound Court . |
Brom Bones , too , who , shortly after his rival 's disappearance conducted the blooming Katrina in triumph to the altar , was observed to look exceedingly knowing whenever the 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 country wives , however , who are the best judges of these matters , maintain to this day that Ichabod was spirited away by supernatural means ; and it is a favorite story often told about the neighborhood round the winter evening fire . |
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 millpond . |
The schoolhouse being deserted soon fell to decay , and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the unfortunate pedagogue and the plowboy , loitering homeward of a still summer evening , has often fancied his voice at a distance , chanting a melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow . |
POSTSCRIPT . |
FOUND IN THE HANDWRITING OF MR. KNICKERBOCKER . |
The preceding tale is given almost in the precise words in which I heard it related at a Corporation meeting at the ancient city of Manhattoes , at which were present many of its sagest and most illustrious burghers . |
The narrator was a pleasant , shabby , gentlemanly old fellow , in pepper-and-salt clothes , with a sadly humourous face , and one whom I strongly suspected of being poor -- he made such efforts to be entertaining . |
When his story was concluded , 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 , one tall , dry-looking old gentleman , with beetling eyebrows , who maintained a grave and rather severe face throughout , now and then folding his arms , inclining his head , and looking down upon the floor , 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 law on their side . |
When the mirth of the rest of the company had subsided , and silence was restored , he leaned one arm on the elbow of his chair , and sticking the other akimbo , demanded , with a slight , but exceedingly sage motion of the head , and contraction 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 wine to his lips , as a refreshment after his toils , paused for a moment , looked at his inquirer with an air of infinite deference , and , lowering the glass slowly to the table , observed that the story was intended most logically to prove -- `` That there is no situation in life but has its advantages and pleasures -- provided we will but take a joke as we find it : `` That , therefore , he that runs races with goblin troopers is likely to have rough riding of it . |
`` Ergo , for a country schoolmaster to be refused the hand of a Dutch heiress is a certain step to high preferment in the state . '' |
The cautious old gentleman knit his brows tenfold closer after this explanation , being sorely puzzled by the ratiocination 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 on the extravagant -- there were one or two points on which he had his doubts . |
`` Faith , sir , '' replied the story-teller , `` as to that matter , I do n't believe one-half of it myself . '' |
D. K . |
Subsets and Splits