The Leyend of Sleepy Hollow

Disappeared

The next morning the old horse was found without his saddle, and with the bridle under his feet. He was quietly munching the grass outside his master's gate. Ichabod did not make his appearance at breakfast. The boys gathered at the schoolhouse, and strolled idly along the banks of the stream, but no schoolmaster appeared. Hans Van Ripper now began to feel uneasy about the fate of poor Ichabod, and his saddle.

An inquiry was set in motion, and after careful in investigation they found his trail. On the road leading to the church they found the saddle trampled into the dirt. The tracks of horses hoofs were found in the road. Evidently the animals were racing at a furious speed. These tracks were traced to the bridge, beyond which, on the Bank of the stream, they found the hat of the. Unfortunate Ichabod. Close besite it there was a shattered pumpkin.

The stream was searched, but the body of the schoolmaster was never found. Has Van Ripper, as executor of Ichabod's estate, examined the bundle containing all his worldly effects. They consisted of two and half shirts, two scarves, two pairs of socks, an old pair of underpants, a rusty razor, a book of psalms, and a broken pitch-pipe. The books in the schoolhouse belonged to the community, except fot Cotton Mather's "History of Witchcraft", a "New England Almanac", and a book of dreams and fortune telling.

Inside this last book there was a sheet of paper. On the paper, in honor of Van Tassel's daughter, we're Ichabod's scribbled verses. The books and the poetic scrawl immediately burned by Hans Van Ripper.

From that moment, Van Rpper decides not to send his children to school any more, observing that he never knew any good to come of this reading nd writtinf nonsense. The schoolmaster received his pay just a day or two before. He must have been carrying all his money at the time of his disappearance.

The mysterious event caused much speculation at the church the following Sunday. Gossips collected in the churchyard, at the bridge and at the spot where the hat and the pumpkin were found. The stories of Brouwer, Bones, and many others were remembered. People shook their heads, and came to the conclusion that Ichabod was carried off by the Headless Horseman. As he was a bachelor, and owed no money, nobody worried any moreabout him. The school was transferred to a different area of the town, and another teacher took over.