The Legend of Sleepy Hollow | Page 8

former
evidently declined: his horse was no longer seen tied to the palings on
Sunday nights, and a deadly feud gradually arose between him and the
preceptor of Sleepy Hollow.
Brom, who had a degree of rough chivalry in his nature, would fain
have carried matters to open warfare and have settled their pretensions
to the lady, according to the mode of those most concise and simple
reasoners, the knights-errant of yore,-- by single combat; but Ichabod
was too conscious of the superior might of his adversary to enter the
lists against him; he had overheard a boast of Bones, that he would
"double the schoolmaster up, and lay him on a shelf of his own
schoolhouse;" and he was too wary to give him an opportunity. There

was something extremely provoking in this obstinately pacific 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 of rough riders. They harried his hitherto peaceful domains;
smoked out his singing school by stopping up the chimney; 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
schoolmaster began to think all the witches in the country 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 scoundrel dog whom he taught to whine in the most
ludicrous manner, and introduced as a rival of Ichabod's, to instruct her
in psalmody.
In this way matters went on for some time, without producing any
material effect on the relative situations of the contending powers. On a
fine autumnal afternoon, Ichabod, in pensive mood, sat enthroned on
the lofty stool from whence he usually watched all the concerns 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 constant terror to evil doers, while on the desk before him
might be seen sundry contraband articles and prohibited weapons,
detected upon the persons of idle urchins, such as half-munched apples,
popguns, whirligigs, fly-cages, and whole legions of rampant little
paper gamecocks. Apparently there had been some appalling act of
justice recently inflicted, for his scholars were all busily intent upon
their books, or slyly whispering behind them with one eye kept upon
the master; and a kind of buzzing stillness reigned throughout the
schoolroom. It was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a negro
in tow-cloth jacket and trowsers, a round-crowned fragment of a hat,
like the cap of Mercury, 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 "quilting frolic," to be held that evening at
Mynheer Van Tassel's; and having delivered his message with that air
of importance, and effort at fine language, which a negro is apt to

display on petty embassies of the kind, he dashed over the brook, and
was seen scampering away up the hollow, full of the importance and
hurry of his mission.
All was now bustle and hubbub in the late quiet schoolroom. The
scholars were hurried through their lessons without stopping at trifles;
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 quicken
their speed or help them over a tall word. Books were flung aside
without being put away on the shelves, inkstands were overturned,
benches thrown 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 an extra 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 schoolhouse. That he might make his appearance before his
mistress in the true style of a cavalier, he borrowed a horse from the
farmer with whom he was domiciliated, a choleric old Dutchman of the
name of Hans Van Ripper, and, thus gallantly mounted, issued forth
like a knight- errant in quest of adventures. But it is meet I should, in
the true spirit of romantic story, give some account of the looks and
equipments of my hero and his steed. The animal he bestrode was a