第 四 章 · 第4章

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 broken-down plow-horse, that had outlived almost everything but its

viciousness. He was gaunt and shagged, with a ewe neck, and a head like

a hammer; his rusty mane and tail were tangled and knotted with burs;

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 fire and

mettle in his day, if we may judge from the name he bore of Gunpowder.

He had, in fact, been a favorite steed of his master’s, the choleric Van

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 filly in

the country.

Ichabod was a suitable figure 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 on,

the motion of his arms was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings. A

small wool hat rested on the top of his nose, for so his scanty strip of

forehead might be called, and the skirts of his black coat fluttered out

almost to the 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 such an apparition as is seldom to be met with in broad

daylight.

It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day; the sky was clear and

serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always

associate with the idea of abundance. The 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 of orange, purple, and scarlet.

Streaming files of wild ducks began to make their appearance high in the

air; the bark of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of beech

and hickory-nuts, and the pensive whistle of the quail at intervals from

the neighboring stubble field.

The small birds were taking their farewell banquets. In the fullness

of their revelry, they fluttered, chirping and frolicking from bush to

bush, and tree to tree, capricious from the very profusion and variety

around them. There was the honest cock robin, the favorite game of

stripling sportsmen, with its loud querulous note; and the twittering

blackbirds flying in sable clouds; and the golden-winged woodpecker with

his crimson crest, his broad black gorget, 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 coxcomb, in his

gay light blue coat and white underclothes, screaming and chattering,

nodding and bobbing 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 culinary abundance, ranged with delight over the treasures of jolly

autumn. On all sides he beheld vast store of apples; some hanging in

oppressive opulence on 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 fields of Indian corn, with its golden ears

peeping from their leafy coverts, and holding out the promise of cakes

and hasty-pudding; and the yellow pumpkins lying beneath 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

fields 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 “sugared

suppositions,” he journeyed along the sides of a range of hills which

look out upon some of the goodliest scenes of the mighty Hudson. The sun

gradually wheeled his broad disk down in the west. The wide bosom of the

Tappan Zee lay motionless and glassy, excepting that here and there a

gentle undulation waved and prolonged the blue shadow of the distant

mountain. A few amber clouds floated in the sky, without a breath of air

to move them. The horizon was of a fine golden tint, changing 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 overhung some parts of the river, giving greater depth

to the dark gray and purple of their rocky sides. A sloop was loitering

in the distance, dropping slowly down with the tide, her sail hanging

uselessly against the mast; and as the reflection 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 flower of the

adjacent country. Old farmers, a spare leathern-faced race, in homespun

coats and breeches, blue stockings, huge shoes, and magnificent pewter

buckles. Their brisk, withered little dames, in close-crimped caps,

long-waisted short gowns, homespun petticoats, with scissors and

pincushions, and gay calico pockets hanging on the outside. Buxom

lasses, almost as antiquated as their mothers, excepting where a straw

hat, a fine 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 being esteemed throughout the country as a potent nourisher

and strengthener of the hair.