" If I can but reach that bridge," thought Ichabod, "I shall be safe." Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind him ; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath. Another convulsive kick in the ribs and old Gunpowder sprang upon the bridge : he thundered over the resounding planks ; he gained the opposite side ; and now Ichabod cast a look behind to see if his pursuer would vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brim-

THE HUDSON. 323

stone. Just then lie saw the goblin rising in his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. Ichabod endeavoured to dodge the horrible missile, but too late ; it encountered his cranium with a terrible crash ; he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider, passed like a whirlwind. A shattered pumpkin was found in the road the next day, and Brom Jones not long afterwards led Katrina Yan Tassel to the altar as his bride. Ichabod was never heard of afterwards. The people always believed he had been spirited away by the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, who, on that occasion, some knowing oneSxSupposed to have been a being no more ghostly than Brom Bones himself, j

Let us climb over this stile by the corner of the old church, into the yard where so many of the pilgrims of earth are sleeping, (llere arc mossy stones with half obliterated epitaphs, marking the graves of many early settlers, among whom is one, upon whose monumental slab it is recorded, that he lived until he was " one hundred and three years old," and had one hundred and twenty-four children and grandchildren at the time of his death I\ Let us pass on up this narrow winding path, and cross the almost invisible boundary between the old "graveyard" and the new " cemetery." Here, well up towards the summit of the hill near the " receiving vault," upon a beautiful sunny slope, is an enclosure made of iron bars and privet hedge, with open gate, inviting entrance. ^Tliere in line stand several slabs of white marble, only two feet in height, at the head of as many oblong hillocks, covered with turf and budding spring flowers.