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 pensivewhistle 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

cockrobin, the favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its
loud querulous note; and the twittering blackbirds flying in

sable clouds, and the golden- wingedwoodpecker 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

slap-jacks, 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" target="_blank" title="a.静止的；固定的">motionless and glassy,
excepting that here and there a gentle undulation waved and

prolonged the blue shallow 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 hanginguselessly 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 pin-cushions, 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 eelskin

for the purpose, it being esteemed throughout the country as a
potent nourisher and strengthener of the hair.

Brom Bones, however, was the hero of the scene, having come
to the gathering on his favorite steed Daredevil, a creature,

like himself, full of mettle and mischief, and which no one but
himself could manage. He was, in fact, noted for preferring

vicious animals, given to all kinds of tricks which kept the
rider in constant risk of his neck, for he held a tractable,

wellbroken horse as unworthy of a lad of spirit.
Fain would I pause to dwell upon the world of charms that

burst upon the enraptured gaze of my hero, as he entered the
state parlor of Van Tassel's mansion. Not those of the bevy of

buxom lasses, with their luxurious display of red and white; but
the ample charms of a genuine Dutch country tea-table, in the

sumptuous time of autumn. Such heaped up platters of cakes of
various and almost indescribable kinds, known only to experienced

Dutch housewives! There was the doughty doughnut, the tender
olykoek, and the crisp and crumbling cruller; sweet cakes and

short cakes, ginger cakes and honey cakes, and the whole family
of cakes. And then there were apple pies, and peach pies, and

pumpkin pies; besides slices of ham and smoked beef; and moreover
delectable dishes of preserved plums, and peaches, and pears, and

quinces; not to mention broiled shad and roasted chickens;
together with bowls of milk and cream, all mingled higgledy-

pigglely, pretty much as I have enumerated them, with the
motherly teapot sending up its clouds of vapor from the midst--

Heaven bless the mark! I want breath and time to discuss this
banquet as it deserves, and am too eager to get on with my story.

Happily, Ichabod Crane was not in so great a hurry as his
historian, but did ample justice to every dainty.

He was a kind and thankful creature, whose heart dilated in
proportion as his skin was filled with good cheer, and whose

spirits rose with eating, as some men's do with drink. He could
not help, too, rolling his large eyes round him as he ate, and

chuckling with the possibility that he might one day be lord of
all this scene of almost unimaginable luxury and splendor. Then,

he thought, how soon he 'd turn his back upon the old
schoolhouse; snap his fingers in the face of Hans Van Ripper, and

every other niggardly patron, and kick any itinerant pedagogue
out of doors that should dare to call him comrade!

Old Baltus Van Tassel moved about among his guests with a
face dilated with content and goodhumor, round and jolly as the

harvest moon. His hospitable attentions were brief, but
expressive, being confined to a shake of the hand, a slap on the

shoulder, a loud laugh, and a pressing invitation to "fall to,
and help themselves."

And now the sound of the music from the common room, or
hall, summoned to the dance. The musician was an old gray-headed

negro, who had been the itinerant orchestra of the neighborhood
for more than half a century. His instrument was as old and

battered as himself. The greater part of the time he scraped on
two or three strings, accompanying every movement of the bow with

a motion of the head; bowing almost to the ground, and stamping
with his foot whenever a fresh couple were to start.

Ichabod prided himself upon his dancing as much as upon his
vocal powers. Not a limb, not a fibre about him was idle; and to

have seen his loosely hung frame in full motion, and clattering
about the room, you would have thought St. Vitus himself, that

blessed patron of the dance, was figuring before you in person.
He was the admiration of all the negroes; who, having gathered,

of all ages and sizes, from the farm and the neighborhood, stood
forming a pyramid of shining black faces at every door and

window; gazing with delight at the scene; rolling their white
eye-balls, and showing grinning rows of ivory from ear to ear.

How could the flogger of urchins be otherwise than animated and
joyous? the lady of his heart was his partner in the dance, and