34 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
mention of the pumpkin; which led some to suspect that he knew more about the matter than he chose to tell. The old country wives, however, who are the best judges of these matters, maintain to this day that Ichabod was spirited away by supernatural means; and it is a favorite story often told about the neighborhood round the winter-evening fire. The bridge became more than, ever an object of superstitious awe, and that may be the
reason why the road has been altered of late years, so as to approach the church by the border of the mill-pond. The school-house, being deserted, soon fell to decay, and was reported to be haunted by the
ghost of the unfortunate pedagogue ; and the ploughboy, loitering homeward of a still summer evening, has often fancied his voice
at a distance, chanting a melancholy psalm-tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow.
