5
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
brook running close by, and a formidable birch-tree growing at one
end of it. From hence the low murmur of his pupils' voices, conning
over their lessons, might be heard in a drowsy summer's day, like the
hum of a beehive ; interrupted now and then by the authoritative
voice of the master, in the tone of menace or command ; or, perad-
venture, by the appalling sound of the birch, as he urged some tardy
loiterer along the flowery path of knowledge. Truth to say, he was a
conscientious man, and ever bore in mind the golden maxim, " Spare
the rod and spoil the child."—Ichabod Crane's scholars certainly were
not spoiled.
I would not have it imagined, however, that he was one of those
cruel potentates of the school, who joy in the smart of their subjects ;
on the contrary, he administered justice with discrimination rather than
severity, taking the burden off the backs of the weak, and laying it on
those of the strong. Your mere puny stripling, that winced at the
least flourish of the rod, was passed by with indulgence; but the
claims of justice were satisfied by inflicting a double portion on some
little, tough, wrong-headed, broad-skirted, Dutch urchin, who sulked
and swelled and grew dogged and sullen beneath the birch. All this
he called " doing his duty " by their parents ; and he never inflicted
a chastisement without following it by the assurance, so consolatory
to the smarting urchin, that "he would remember it and thank him
for it the longest day he had to live."
When school hours were over, he was even the companion and
playmate of the larger boys; and on holiday afternoons would con-
voy some of the smaller ones home, who happened to have pretty
sisters, or good housewives for mothers, noted for the comforts of
the cupboard. Indeed it behooved him to keep on good terms with
his pupils. The revenue arising from his school was small, and
would have been scarcely sufficient to furnish him with daily bread,
for he was a huge feeder, and, though lank, had the dilating powers
of an anaconda; but to help out his maintenance, he was, according
to country custom in those parts, boarded and lodged at the houses
