Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-02-28
ishly back. envying his superior elegance

Prom DIS nan ltlHeIdhe nv D.o, -
was a kind of travelling gazette, carrying
! the whole budget of local gossip from
. house TO house. so that his appearance
80, 80 olv-o ys erected with satisfaction. He
! was moreover. esteemed by the women
! as a man of great erudition, for he had
read several books quite through, ana
. was a perfect master of Cotton Mathers
: "History of New England Witcacraft,
! in which, by the way. he most firmly ana
! 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 1t
! were EQUALLY extraordinary, and both
had been increased by his residence in
this speIlbound region. No tale was too
gross or monstrous for his capacious
swallow. 1t was often his delight, after
his school was dismissed in the after
noon, to stretch himself on the rich bed
of clover, bordering the little brook that
whimpered by his school house, ana
there con over old Mather's direful tales,
until the gathering dusk OF evening
made the printed page mere mist pc
fore his eyes. Then, as he wended his
way, by swamp and stream and awiu
woodland. TO the farm house where he
happened to be quartered, every sound
o. nature, at that witching hour, fiut-
tered his excited imagination; the moan
of the whip-poor-will& from the hill side;
the boding cry of the tree toad, that har-
binger of storm; the dreary hooting OF
the screech owl; or the sudden rustling
in the thicket of birds frightened from
their roost. The fire fies too, which
sparkled most wildly in the darkest
| places. now and then startled him, as
one of uncommon brightness would
I stream across his path; and If, by
+ chance. huge blockhead of a beetle
came winging his laundering flight
against him, the poor varlet was ready
4 to give up the ghost, with the idea
that he was struck with a witch's
token. His only resource on such occa-
sions, either to drown thought OF 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 filled with awe at hearing his
nasal melody, lin linked sweetness long
drawn out" floating from the distant
hill or along the dusty road.
Another Of his sources of fearful pleas
ure was. 10 pass long winter evenings
with the old Dutch wives, as they sat
spinning by the fire, with row Of apples |
roasting and suffering along the hearth,
and listen to their marvellous tales of |
ghosts, and COLLINS, and haunted fields |
and haunted brooks. and haunted bridges |
and haunted houses. and particularly of |
the headless horseman, or galloping Hes !
sian of the Hollow. as they sometimes 1
called him. He would delight them |
equally by his anecdotes of witchcraft, |
and of the direful omens and portentous |
sights and sounds in the air, which pre-
vailed in the earlier times of Connecticut;
and would brighten them wofully with
speculations upon comets and shooting
stars, and with the alarming fact that the
world did absolutely turn round, and
that they were half the time topsy turvyl |
But If there was pleasure in all this,
while snugly cuddling in the chimney
corner of chamber that was all of a
rudy glow from the cracking wood fire,
and whore, of course. no specter 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 he eve every
trembling ray OF light streaming across
the waste fields from some distant win
dowl How often was he appalled, by
some shrub covered with snow, which
like a sheeted specter beset his very PATH
How often did he shrink with curdling
awe at the sound of his own steps on the
frosty crust beneath his feet, and dread
to look over his shoulder. lest he should
behold some uncouth being tramping
close behind himi And how often was
he thrown into complete dismay By some
rushing blast, bowling among the trees,
f4u T. loo ffaaa
sian on one Of his nightly scouringsl
All these. however, were mere turrors ! ,
of the night, phantoms Of the mind, that
walk in darkness: and though he had |
seen many Gpecters in his time, and been ,
more than once beset by Satan in divers !
shapes, in his lonely peramhulations, yet !
daylight put an end to all these evils;
and he would have passed a pleas I
ant life of it, in despite of
the devil and all his works. :
If his path had not been crossed by be- ,
ing that causes more perplexity to mortal Z
man, than ghosts, COLLINS and the whole /
race of witches put together: and that !
was--a woman.
Among the musical disciples who as /
sembled one evening in each week to re- ,
ceive his instructions in psalmody was r
Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and :
only child OF substantial Dutch farmer. \
She was a blooming lass of fresh 18; I
plump as partridge; ripe and melting y
md rosy. checked as one of her fathers =
peaches, and universally famed, not n
merely for her beauty, but her vast ex- !
Dectations. She was withal n little of a a
as might be perceived even in :
her dress, which was mixture of 4
,ncient and modern fashions, as most y
iuited to set of her charms. She wore h
he ornaments Of pure yellow gold, n
which her great great grandmother had /,
brought over from Saardam; the tempt a
ng stomacher of tho olden time. and 3
yithal provokingly short petticoat, to h
display the p-ettiest foot and ankle in !,
he country round. /,
lchabod Crane had soft and foolish .
leart toward the sex; and it is not to be =
wondered at, that so tempting morsel !,
Don found favor in his eyes, more espe-
Tally after he had visited her in her nater- .
lal mansion. Old Baltus Van 1asseI :