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.
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,well-broken 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 oly koek,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-piggledy,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 good humor, 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.”