Page 29 - THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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

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