The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-09-11

child wiser men than solomon nau not
yet nculcated the doctrine of moral
suasion'' as a panacea for fractions child
rem and corx-oral punishment had not
beei forbidden by men who sat in
the seats of the mighty and scorned
Solomon and all his works. Icha-
bod's children were not spoiled. on a
drowsy summer day you could hear the
sound of the childrens voices as they
| conned over the lessons stealing forth
| upon The languid air like the hum of a
| bee hive, to be interrupted now and then
| by the sharp, authoritative voice of the
master, or, peradventure, by the appalling
sound OF the birch as Ichabod urged some
| tardy loiter along the fiowery paths of
| knowledge. However, Ichabod was not
one of those cruel potentates Of the old
time school who joyed in the smart of his
subjects. On the contrary, he administer
ed justice with discrimination rather than
severity, taking the burden from the
| backs of the weak and laying it on the
| strong.
: When the school hours were over Icha-
bod was the companion and playfellow of
the larger boys, and on holiday after
|
smaller ones home who happened to have
pretty sisters, or mothers noted for the
comforts of the cupboard 1t behooved the
schoolmaster to stand well with the par
ents of his pupils, for his stipend was but
small and he was a mighty eater, as such
long, lank fellows frequently are. To help
out his maintenance Ichabod used to
board around" staying a week with this
parent and week with that, thus going
the rounds, with all his worldly effects
done I'D in a. cotton handkerchief. But
!, Ichabod was welcome in all the homes to
which he was assigned, for he helped
about the farm work with the men folk
and found favor IN the eyes of the good
wives by petting the children, not dis
daining to spend his time in rocking the
cradle for hours together
| He was the singing master of the neigh
| borhood, too, and picked up many shil-
ling that way. When he stood in front
of the church gallery on Sunday with a
band of chosen singers and led the
psalmody In a voice that resounded far
and wide, he, In his own opinion, COM
pletely overshadowed the minister. In
strange echoes which are said to be the
ghosts of the music which Ichabod Crane
once poured froth there in no uncertain
| tones Thus by various little ma.keshifts
the pedagogue managed to get along
tolerably well and was thought, by those
who had no idea of the labor of head
work to have remarkably easy time
Of 1t.
| And Ichabod was an erudite man. He
had read several books quite through and
| was complete master of 1.-THE History of
New England Wtchcraft." by that pious
and reverend DR.. Cotton Mather, in which
veracious chronicle he firmly believed
every word of 1t. His appetite for the
marvellous and his powers Of digesting it,,
naturally great were increased by his
residence in such haunted and SPELL
bound place as Sleepy Hollow; though he
who can swallow Cotton Mather needs
no stimulus to his appetite for such sort
OF provender. 1t was an especial delight
OF Ichabod's to lie on a clover bed be-
side the softly nfurmuring stream on
pleasant summer afternoons after school
was dismissed and read from the good
Doctors tale of marvels until the falling
twilight made the printed page inde-
cipherable.
| Then as he wended homeward to the
| farmhouse where he happened to be
lodged, by swamp and stream and awful
woodlands, every sound of nature futtered
his excited Imagination. The mournful
cry of the whip-poor-will, the boding cry
Of the treetoad, the dreary hooting of an
owl or the sudden rustling in the thicket
of birds frightened from their roosts sent
through him little runlets of superstitious
| fear not wholly enjoyable. I$f the noises
of the falling night became too ghostly he
would life his resonant voice in some good
old sledge-hammer hymn warranted to
drive the goblins away. Villagers sitting
at their doors in the cool of the evening
used to hear Ichabods strenuous song
floating out from the hillside or from some
lonely road and, softened by the distance
| his raucous voice came with no unpleas-
ant sound to their listening ears. Around
the ample fireside at night, also, they used
| to be delightfully."- thrilled by the school
masters tales of witchcraft, which he
told as the roasting apples sputtered along
the hearth and the jug, of cider stood hard
| by. And sometimes on those evenings
they would hear, as they listened, the
Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow gal
Looping along the road back to the scene
of his last battle in search for his missing
head. So the days of Ichabod Crane went
on in a pleasing though haunted quietude.
All the ghosts which his imagination
raised were mere phantoms of the night
which fed away at the dawn of rosy
morning.
He might have thus passed his whole
life had his path not been crossed by a
being that causes more perplexity to NOR
tai man than ghosts, COLLINS and the
whole race of witches put together-and
that was a woman! Katrina Van Tassel,
the only child of a substantial farmer, was
one of the pupils who used to assemble
| one evening in each week to receive in
Ichabod. She was blooming lass of
| fresh 49, plump as partridge, ripe and
melting as one of her fathers own pears
and rosy checked as one Of her fathers
own peaches. And added to her charms
was the fact that she was heiress of one
of the richest men in the neighborhood.
Katrina was a bit Of a coquette, as might
be perceived even in her dress, which was
| mixture of ancient and modern CO.'S
tunes such as was best suited to set off
her charms. She wore ornaments of pure
yellow gold. which her great-great-grand-
L