d delight them equally by
his anecdotes of witchcraft, and of the direful omens and portentous
sights and sounds in the air, which prevailed in the earlier times of
Connecticut; and would frighten them wofully with speculations upon
comets and shooting stars, and with the alarming fact that the world
did absolutely turn round, and that they were half the time topsy-turvy!

But if there was a pleasure in all this, while snugly cuddling in the
chimney corner of a chamber that was all of a ruddy glow from the
crackling wood fire, and where, of course, no specter dared to show its
face, it was dearly purchased by the terrors of his subsequent walk
homeward. What fearful shapes and shadows beset his path, amid the dim
and ghastly glare of a snowy night!--With what wistful look did he eye
every trembling ray of light streaming across the waste fields from
some distant window!--How often was he appalled by some shrub covered
with snow, which, like a sheeted specter, beset his very path!--How
often did he shrink with curdling awe at the sound of his own steps on
the frosty crust beneath his feet, and dread to look over his shoulder,
lest he should behold some uncouth being tramping close behind
him!--and how often was he thrown into complete dismay by some rushing
blast, howling among the trees, in the idea that it was the galloping
Hessian on one of his nightly scourings!

All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms of the
mind, that walk in darkness: and though he had seen many specters in
his time, and had been more than once beset by Satan in divers shapes
in his lonely perambulations, yet daylight put an end to all these
evils; and he would have passed a pleasant life of it, in despite of
the Devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a
being that causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins,
and the whole race of witches put together; and that was--a woman.

Among the musical disciples who assembled, one evening in each week, to
receive his 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 moder