The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
43 pages
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When he entered the house, the conquest of his heart was
complete. It was one of those spacious farmhouses, with highridged but lowly
sloping roofs, built in the style handed down from the first Dutch settlers;
the low projecting eaves forming a piazza along the front, capable of being
closed up in bad weather. Under this were hung flails, harness, various
utensils of husbandry, and nets for fishing in the neighboring river. Benches
were built along the sides for summer use; and a great spinning-wheel at one
end, and a churn at the other, showed the various uses to which this important
porch might be devoted. From this piazza the wondering Ichabod entered the
hall, which formed the centre of the mansion, and the place of usual residence.
Here rows of resplendent pewter, ranged on a long dresser, dazzled his eyes. In
one corner stood a huge bag of wool, ready to be spun; in another, a quantity
of linsey-woolsey just from the loom; ears of Indian corn, and strings of dried
apples and peaches, hung in gay festoons along the walls, mingled with the gaud
of red peppers; and a door left ajar gave him a peep into the best parlor, where
the claw-footed chairs and dark mahogany tables shone like mirrors; andirons,
with their accompanying shovel and tongs, glistened from their covert of
asparagus tops; mock oranges and conch shells decorated the mantelpiece;
strings of various-colored birds eggs were suspended above it; a great ostrich
egg was hung from the centre of the room, and a corner cupboard, knowingly left
open, displayed immense treasures of old silver and well-mended china.
From the moment Ichabod laid his eyes upon these regions of
delight, the peace of his mind was at an end, and his only study was how to
gain the affections of the peerless daughter of Van Tassel. In this enterprise,
however, he had more real difficulties than generally fell to the lot of a
knight-errant of yore, who seldom had anything but giants, enchanters, fiery
dragons, and such like easily conquered adversaries, to contend with and had to
make his way merely through gates of iron and brass, and walls of adamant to
the castle keep, where the lady of his heart was confined; all which he
achieved as easily as a man would carve his way to the centre of a Christmas
pie; and then the lady gave him her hand as a matter of course. Ichabod, on the
contrary, had to win his way to the heart of a country coquette, beset with a
labyrinth of whims and caprices,
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