Sleepy Hollow is a small rural community in New York state. Most of the people who live there are of Dutch descent. Ichabod Crane moves there from Connecticut. He is a tall, skinny man with shabby, old clothes who could easily be mistaken for a walking scarecrow. He is also very superstitious and quite easily frightened. Ichabod takes up the position of teacher in the small town's only school but his real reason for moving to the area is to find a rich woman to marry. He soon begins to take an interest in Katrina Van Tassel, the only child of the wealthy farmer Baltus Van Tassel. Katrina's future husband is certain to eventually inherit Baltus Van Tassel's considerable fortune. Ichabod starts to court Katrina but has a rival in the form of Abraham Van Brundt, a strong athletic young man who is better known by the nickname Brom Bones.
Ichabod Crane is invited to a dinner party at the Van Tassels' home one autumn afternoon. As the dinner party comes to an end, the other guests, including Brom Bones, begin to tell ghost stories. Most of the stories feature the Headless Horseman, the ghost of a German soldier who fought for the British during the American War of Independence and who lost his head when it was knocked off by a cannonball. Brom Bones says that he saw the ghost a year earlier and challenged it to a race. The ghost suddenly disappeared when it arrived at a bridge by the church.
On his way home from the dinner party, Ichabod sees what he thinks is the Headless Horseman. He tries to outride it and reach the bridge by the church. Before Ichabod makes it across the bridge, the Headless Horseman throws a large round object at him and he is knocked unconscious.
The following day, Ichabod's horse is found without a saddle. The saddle is later found, with a shattered pumpkin lying next to it, but Ichabod Crane is never seen again and the story of his disappearance becomes a favorite local tale.
There are rumors that Ichabod Crane is still alive, has moved away and become a lawyer. Some people suspect that Brom Bones, who marries Katrina Van Tassel, was responsible for driving Ichabod away because he "was observed to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod Crane was related and always burst into a hearty laugh at the mention of the pumpkin". However, most people in Sleepy Hollow believe that Ichabod was carried off by the Headless Horseman. Local children do not dare to go near his old abandoned school house after dark, for fear that the teacher's ghost is still inside it.
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Scary stories
Misteri / ThrillerA collection of Horror, paranormal, Ghost sightings, Murders, Folktales, urban legends, and more c: I wouldn't read this if your weak to heart, because of some of the stuff contained in this book. You have been warned
