University of Virginia Library

A DESIRABLE MATCH.

Among the musical disciples who assembled, one evening
in each week, to receive his (Ichabod Crane's) instructions
in psalmody, was Katrina Van Tassel, the
daughter and only child of a substantial Dutch farmer.
She was a blooming lass of fresh eighteen; plump as a
partridge; ripe and melting and rosy cheeked as one of
her father's peaches, and universally famed, not merely for
her beauty, but her vast expectations. She was withal a
little of a coquette, as might be perceived even in her
dress, which was a mixture of ancient and modern fashions,
as most suited to set off her charms. She wore
the ornaments of pure yellow gold, which her great-great-grandmother
had brought over from Saardum; the tempting

stomacher of the olden time; and withal a provokingly
short petticoat, to display the prettiest foot and
ankle in the country round.

Ichabod Crane had a soft and foolish heart toward
the sex; and it is not to be wondered at, that so tempting
a morsel soon found favour in his eyes; more especially
after he had visited her in her paternal mansion. Old
Baltus Van Tassel was a perfect picture of a thriving,
contented, liberal-hearted farmer. He seldom, it is true,
sent either his eyes or his thoughts beyond the boundaries
of his own farm; but within those every thing was snug,
happy, and well-conditioned. He was satisfied with his
wealth but not proud of it; and piqued himself upon the
hearty abundance, rather than the style in which he lived,
His strong hold was situated on the banks of the Hudson,
in one of those green, sheltered, fertile nooks, in
which the Dutch farmers are so fond of nestling. A
great elm-tree spread its broad branches over it; at the
foot of which bubbled up a spring of the softest and sweetest
water, in a little well, formed of a barrel; and then
stole sparkling away through the grass, to a neighbouring
brook, that babbled along among alders and dwarf willows.
Hard by the farm house was a vast barn, that might
have served for a church; every window and crevice of
which seemed bursting forth with the treasures of the
farm; the flail was busily resounding within from morning
to night; swallows and martins skimmed twittering
about the eaves; and rows of pigeons, some with one
eye turned up, as if watching the weather, some with
their heads under their wings, or buried in their bosoms,
and others swelling and cooing and bowing, about their
dames, were enjoying the sunshine on the roof. Sleek
unwieldy porkers were grunting in the repose and abundance
of their pens; from whence sallied forth, now and
then, troops of sucking pigs, as if to snuff the air. A
stately squadron of snowy geese were riding in an adjoining
pond, convoying whole fleets of ducks; regiments
of turkeys were gobbling through the farm-yard, and
guinea fowls fretting about it, like ill-tempered house-wives,
with their peevish discontented cry. Before the
barn door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern of a
husband, a warrior, and a fine gentleman; clapping his
burnished wings, and crowing in the pride and gladness
of his heart—sometimes tearing up the earth with his
feet and then generously calling his ever hungry family

of wives and children to enjoy the rich morsel which he
had discovered.

The pedagogue's mouth watered, as he looked upon
this sumptuous promise of luxurious winter fare. In
his devouring mind's eye, he pictured to himself every
roasting pig running about with a pudding in its belly,
and an apple in its mouth; the pigeons were snugly put
to bed in a comfortable pie, and tucked in with a coverlet
of crust; the geese were swimming in their own gravy;
and the ducks pairing cosily in dishes, like snug
married couples, with a decent competency of onion
sauce. In the porkers he saw carved out the future
sleek side of bacon, and juicy relishing ham; not a turkey,
but he beheld daintily trussed up, with its gizzard
under its wing, and, peradventure, a necklace of savoury
sausages; and even bright chanticleer himself lay sprawling
on his back, in a side dish, with uplifted claws as
if craving that quarter, which his chivalric spirit disdained
to ask while living.

As the enraptured Ichabod fancied all this, and as he
rolled his great green eyes over the fat meadow lands,
the rich fields of wheat, of rye, of buckwheat, and Indian
corn, and the orchards burthened with ruddy fruit,
which surrounded the warm tenement of Van Tassel,
his heart yearned after the damsel who was to inherit
these domains, and his imagination expanded with the
idea, how they might be readily turned into cash, and the
money invested in immense tracts of wild land, and shingle
palaces in the wilderness. Nay, his busy fancy already
realized his hopes, and presented to him the blooming
Katrina, with a whole family of children, mounted
on the top of a wagon loaded with household trumpery,
with pots and kettles dangling beneath; and he beheld
himself bestriding a pacing mare, with a colt at her heels,
setting out for Kentucky, Tennessee, or the Lord knows
where.