he must have had about his
person at the time of his disappearance.

The mysterious event caused much speculation at the church on the
following Sunday. Knots of gazers and gossips were collected in the
churchyard, at the bridge, and at the spot where the hat and pumpkin
had been found. The stories of Brouwer, of Bones, and a whole budget
of others, were called to mind; and when they had diligently considered
them all, and compared them with the symptoms of the present case, they
shook their heads, and came to the conclusion that Ichabod had been
carried off by the galloping Hessian. As he was a bachelor, and in
nobody's debt, nobody troubled his head any more about him; the school
was removed to a different quarter of the Hollow, and another pedagogue
reigned in his stead.

It is true, an old farmer, who had been down to New York on a visit
several years after, and from whom this account of the ghostly
adventure was received, brought home the intelligence that Ichabod
Crane was still alive; that he had left the neighborhood partly through
fear of the goblin and Hans Van Ripper, and partly in mortification at
having been suddenly dismissed by the heiress; that he had changed his
quarters to a distant part of the country; had kept school and studied
law at the same time; had been admitted to the bar; turned politician;
electioneered; written for the newspapers; and finally had been made a
Justice of the Ten Pound Court. Brom Bones too, who, shortly after his
rival's disappearance, conducted the blooming Katrina in triumph to the
altar, was observed to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of
Ichabod was related, and always burst into a hearty laugh at the
mention of the pumpkin; which led some to suspect that he knew more
about the matter than he chose to tell.

The old country wives, however, who are the best judges of these
matters, maintain to this day that Ichabod was spirited away by
supernatural means; and it is a favorite story often told about the
neighborhood round the winter evening fire. The bridge became more
than ever an object of superstitious awe; and that may be the reason
why the road has been altered of late years, so as to approach the
church by the border of the mill-pond. The schoolhouse being deserted,
soon fell to decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the
unfortunate pedagogue; and the plow-boy, loitering homeward of a still
summer evening, has often fancied his voice