University of Virginia Library

A DUTCH ENTERTAINMENT.

Thus feeding his mind with many sweet thoughts and
“sugared suppositions,” he journeyed along the sides of
a range of hills which look out upon some of the goodliest
scenes of the mighty Hudson. The sun gradually wheeled

his broad disk down into the west. The wide bosom of
the Tappaan Zee lay motionless and glassy, excepting
that here and there a gentle undulation waved and prolonged
the blue shadow of the distant mountain. A few
amber clouds floated in the sky, without a breath of air
to move them. The horizon was of a fine golden tint,
changing gradually into a pure apple green, and from
that into the deep blue of the mid-heaven. A slanting
ray lingered on the woody crests of the precipices that
overhung some parts of the river, giving greater depth to
the dark gray and purple of their rocky sides. A sloop
was loitering in the distance, dropping slowly down with
the tide, her sail hanging uselessly against the mast; and
as the reflection of the sky gleamed along the still water,
it seemed as if the vessel was suspended in the air.

It was towards evening that Ichabod arrived at the
castle of the Heer Van Tassel, which he found thronged
with the pride and flower of the adjacent country. Old
farmers, a spare leathern-faced race, in homespun coats
and breeches, blue stockings, huge shoes, and magnificent
pewter buckles. Their brisk, withered little dames, in
close crimped caps, long-waisted gowns, homespun petticoats,
with scissors and pincushions, and gay calico pockets
hanging on the outside. Buxom lasses, almost as
antiquated as their mothers, excepting where a straw hat,
a fine riband, or perhaps a white frock, gave symptoms
of city innovations. The sons, in short square-skirted
coats, with rows of stupendous brass buttons, and their
hair generally queued in the fashion of the times, especially
if they could procure an eelskin for the purpose, it
being esteemed throughout the country, as a potent
nourisher and strengthener of the hair.

Brom Bones, however, was the hero of the scene, having
come to the gathering on his favourite steed Dare-devil,
a creature, like himself, full of mettle and mischief,
and which no one but himself could manage. He was, in
fact, noted for preferring vicious animals, given to all
kinds of tricks which kept the rider in constant risk of
his neck, for he held a tractable well broken horse as unworthy
a lad of spirit.

Fain would I pause to dwell upon the world of charms
that burst upon the enraptured gaze of my hero, as he
entered the state parlour of Van Tassel's mansion. Not
those of the bevy of buxom lasses, with their luxurious
display of red and white; but the ample charms of a genuine

Dutch country tea-table, in the sumptuous time of
autumn. Such heaped up platters of cakes, of various and
almost indescribable kinds, known only to experienced
Dutch housewives! There was the doughty dough-nut,
the tenderer oly koek, and the crisp and crumbling cruller;
sweet cakes and short cakes, ginger cakes and honey
cakes, and the whole family of cakes. And then there were
apple pies, and peach pies, and pumpkin pies; besides slices
of ham and smoke beef; and moreover delectable dishes
of preserved plums, and peaches, and pears, and quinces;
not to mention broiled shad and roasted chickens; together
with bowls of milk and cream; all mingled higgeldy-piggeldy,
pretty much as I have enumerated them, with the
motherly tea-pot sending up its clouds of vapour from the
midst—Heaven bless the mark! I want breath and time
to discuss this banquet as it deserves, and am too eager
to get on with my story. Happily Ichabod Crane was not
in so great a hurry as his historian, but did ample justice
to every dainty.

He was a kind and thankful creature, whose heart dilated
in proportion as his skin was filled with good cheer; and
whose spirits rose with eating as some men's do with
drink. He could not help, too, rolling his large eyes
round him as he ate, and chuckling with the possibility
that he might one day be lord of all this scene of almost
unimaginable luxury and splendour. Then, he thought,
how soon he'd turn his back upon the old school house;
snap his finger in the face of Hans Van Ripper, and every
other niggardly patron, and kick any itinerant pedagogue
out of doors that should dare to call him comrade!

Old Baltus Van Tassel moved about among his guests
with a face dilated with content and good humour, round
and jolly as the harvest moon. His hospitable attentions
were brief, but expressive, being confined to a shake of
the hand, a slap on the shoulder, a loud laugh, and a
pressing invitation to “fall to, and help themselves.”

Ichabod prided himself upon his dancing as much as
upon his vocal powers. Not a limb, not a fibre about him
was idle; and to have seen his loosely hung frame in full
motion, and clattering about the room, you would have
thought Saint Vitus himself, that blessed patron of the
dance, was figuring before you in person. He was the
admiration of all the negroes; who, having gathered, of all
ages and sizes, from the farm and the neighbourhood, stood
forming a pyramid of shining black faces at every door and

window; gazing with delight at the scene; rolling their
white eye-balls, and showing grinning rows of ivory from
ear to ear. How could the flogger of urchins be otherwise
than animated and joyous? the lady of his heart
was his partner in the dance, and smiling graciously in reply
to all his amorous oglings; while Brom Bones, sorely
smitten with love and jealousy, sat brooding by himself in
one corner.