heir little sisters by the
presents with which their pockets were crammed; but the meeting to
which they seemed to look forward with the greatest impatience was with
Bantam, which I found to be a pony." When he had heard what a
remarkable animal this pony was said to be, Irving gave his attention
to other things until he heard a shout from the little travelers. Let
him tell the rest of the story.

"They had been looking out of the coach-windows for the last few miles,
recognizing every tree and cottage as they approached home, and now
there was a general burst of joy. 'There's John! and there's old Carlo!
and there's Bantam!' cried the happy little rogues, clapping their
hands. At the end of a lane there was an old, sober-looking servant in
livery waiting for them; he was accompanied by a superannuated pointer,
and by the redoubtable Bantam, a little old rat of a pony, with a
shaggy mane and long, rusty tail, who stood dozing quietly by the
roadside, little dreaming of the bustling times that awaited him. Off
they set at last, one on the pony, with the dog bounding and barking
before him, and the others holding John's hands, both talking at once.
* * * We stopped a few moments afterward to water the horses, and on
resuming our route a turn of the road brought us in sight of a neat
country-seat. I could just distinguish the forms of a lady and two
young girls in the portico, and I saw my little comrades with Bantam,
Carlo, and old John trooping along the carriage-road. I leaned out of
the coach window in hopes of witnessing the happy meeting, but a grove
of trees shut it from my sight."

"If ever love, as poets sing, delights to visit a cottage, it must be
the cottage of an English peasant," Irving thinks, and goes on to write
in his own pleasant fashion of many pleasant things in English country
life, saying: "Those who see the Englishman only in town are apt to
form an unfavorable opinion of his social character. * * * Wherever he
happens to be, he is on the point of going somewhere else; at the
moment when he is talking on one subject, his mind is wandering to
another; and while he is paying a friendly visit, he is calculating how
he shall economize time so as to pay the other visits allotted in the
morning."

The "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a genuine ghost story. It is not very
startling, but very, very funny, when you know what scared poor Ichabod
Crane on his midnight ride that last time he went courting Govern