genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield. 115 His school-house was a low building of one large room, rudely constructed of logs; the windows partly glazed, and partly patched with leaves of old copy-books. It was most ingeniously secured at vacant hours by a withe twisted in the handle of the door, and stakes set against the window-shutters; so that, though 120 a thief might get in with perfect ease, he would find some embarrassment in getting out, an idea most probably borrowed by the architect, Yost Van Houten, from the mystery of an eel-pot. The school-house stood in a rather lonely but pleasant situation; just at the foot of a woody hill, with a brook running 125 close by, and a formidable birch-tree growing at one end of it. From hence the low murmur of his pupils' voices, conning over their lessons, might be heard in a drowsy summer's day, like the hum of a beehive; interrupted now and then by the authoritative voice of the master, in the tone of menace or command; 130 or, peradventure, by the appalling sound of the birch as he urged some tardy loiterer along the flowery path of knowledge. Truth to say, he was a conscientious man, and ever bore in mind the golden maxim, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." Ichabod Crane's scholars certainly were not spoiled. 135 I would not have it imagined, however, that he was one of those cruel potentates of the school who joy in the smart of their subjects; on the contrary, he administered justice with discrimination rather than severity, taking the burthen off the backs of the weak, and laying it on those of the strong. Your mere 140 puny stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the rod, was passed by with indulgence; but the claims of justice were satis 119. Withe, a band consisting of a twig or twigs twisted, used for tying or binding. 124. Eel-pot, a basket-like trap for catching eels. 126. Formidable (Lat. formido, dread), exciting great fear, calculated to inspire dread. Lines 130 to 135 show the appropriateness of this epithet: 'Spare the rod," etc. Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, 1612-1680. "He that spareth his rod hateth his son." Proverbs xiii. 24. 141. Winced (akin to wink), made a sudden shrinking movement. fied by inflicting a double portion on some little tough, wrongheaded, broad-skirted Dutch urchin, who sulked and swelled and grew dogged and sullen beneath the birch. All this he 145 called "doing his duty by their parents"; and he never inflicted a chastisement without following it by the assurance, so consolatory to the smarting urchin, that "he would remember it and thank him for it the longest day he had to live." When school-hours were over, he was even the companion 150 and playmate of the larger boys; and on holiday afternoons would convoy some of the smaller ones home, who happened to have pretty sisters, or good housewives for mothers, noted for the comforts of the cupboard. Indeed, it behooved him to keep on good terms with his pupils. The revenue arising from his 155 school was small, and would have been scarcely sufficient to furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge feeder, and, though lank, had the dilating powers of an anaconda; but to help out his maintenance, he was, according to country custom in those parts, boarded and lodged at the houses of the farmers 160 whose children he instructed. With these he lived successively a week at a time; thus going the rounds of the neighborhood, with all his worldly effects tied up in a cotton handkerchief. That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his 165 rustic patrons, who are apt to consider the costs of schooling a grievous burden, and schoolmasters as mere drones, he had various ways of rendering himself both useful and agreeable. He assisted the farmers occasionally in the lighter labors of their farms, helped to make hay, mended the fences, took the horses 170 to water, drove the cows from pasture, and cut wood for the winter fire. He laid aside, too, all the dominant dignity and 144. Urchin (Lat. ericius, hedgehog; the urchin figures extensively in witchcraft and demonology, and the word sometimes stands for a mischievous spirit), roguish boy. 154. Comforts of the cupboard. The description of the tea-table at Van Tassel's on a subsequent page fully explains this expression. 158. Dilating powers, etc. The anaconda is noted for swallowing large animals. absolute sway with which he lorded it in his little empire, the school, and became wonderfully gentle and ingratiating. He found favor in the eyes of the mothers by petting the children, 175 particularly the youngest; and like the lion bold, which whilom so magnanimously the lamb did hold, he would sit with a child on one knee, and rock a cradle with his foot for whole hours together. In addition to his other vocations, he was the singing-master 180 of the neighborhood, and picked up many bright shillings by instructing the young folks in psalmody. It was a matter of no little vanity to him, on Sundays, to take his station in front of the church gallery, with a band of chosen singers; where, in his own mind, he completely carried away the palm from the 185 parson. Certain it is, his voice resounded far above all the rest of the congregation; and there are peculiar quavers still to be heard in that church, and which may even be heard half a mile off, quite to the opposite side of the mill-pond, on a still Sunday morning, which are said to be legitimately descended from the 198 nose of Ichabod Crane. Thus, by divers little makeshifts, in 174. Ingratiating (Lat. in, in, and gratia, favor), commending one's self to the favor of another; insinuating. 176. Whilom (A.-S. hwilum, sometime, at times), formerly, of old. The lion bold, etc. In the New England Primer there is a queer illuminated alphabet; each letter is the initial of the principal word in a rude couplet. A lion whose paw rests protectingly on a lamb, by the aid of the following lines points out the letter L:— 66 The Lion bold The Lamb doth hold." 177. Magnanimously (Lat. magnus, great; animus, soul; -ly, like), like a great soul. 180. Vocations (Lat. vocare, to call), calling, trade, business, occupation. 182. Psalmody, psalm-singing. 185. Carried away the palm. Wreaths or branches of palm were worn in token of victory; hence the word signifies victory, triumph. The expression here means that Ichabod surpassed the parson in importance and excellence. 187. Quavers, shakings or tremblings of the voice in singing. Their nasal character is forcibly described by the phrase "descended from the nose of Ichabod Crane"! that ingenious way which is commonly denominated "by hook and by crook," the worthy pedagogue got on tolerably enough, and was thought, by all who understood nothing of the labor of headwork, to have a wonderfully easy life of it. 195 The schoolmaster is generally a man of some importance in the female circle of a rural neighborhood, being considered a kind of idle, gentlemanlike personage, of vastly superior taste and accomplishments to the rough country swains, and, indeed, inferior in learning only to the parson. His appearance, therefore, 200 is apt to occasion some little stir at the tea-table of a farmhouse, and the addition of a supernumerary dish of cakes or sweetmeats, or, peradventure, the parade of a silver teapot. Our man of letters, therefore, was peculiarly happy in the smiles of all the country damsels. How he would figure among them in the 205 churchyard, between services on Sundays! gathering grapes for them from the wild vines that overran the surrounding trees; reciting for their amusement all the epitaphs on the tombstones; or sauntering, with a whole bevy of them, along the banks of the adjacent mill-pond; while the more bashful country bump- 210 kins hung sheepishly back, envying his superior elegance and address. From his half-itinerant life, also, he was a kind of travelling gazette, carrying the whole budget of local gossip from house to 192. By hook and by crook, by any means direct or indirect. It is sometimes said that this proverb owes its origin to a place called the Crook in Waterford Harbor, Ireland, over against the tower of the Hook. It is safe to land on one side when the wind drives from the other. 200. See Goldsmith's Deserted Village, where the parson and the schoolmaster are the principal characters. 202. Supernumerary (Lat. super, over; numerus, number), extra, in addition to the usual or needful number. 209. Sauntering, wandering about idly. Dr. Johnson derives the word from Sainte Terre (Fr.), the Holy Land, because in crusading times idle fellows, who loitered about asking charity, and who had no definite plans or work in view, or were unwilling to disclose them, would say they were going à la Sainte Terre. "The radical meaning [of saunter] would seem to be to trail or drag along." Wedgwood. Akin to Ger. schlentern and schlendern, to wander idly about, to loiter. 38 house, so that his appearance was always greeted with tion. He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a great erudition, for he had read several books quite th and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's History o England Witchcraft, in which, by the way, he most fir y and potently believed. 220 He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness and simple credulity. His appetite for the marvellous, and his powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary; and both had been increased by his residence in this spellbound region. No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow. 225 It was often his delight, after his school was dismissed in the afternoon, to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover bordering the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, and there con over old Mather's direful tales, until the gathering dusk of the evening made the printed page a mere mist before his eyes. 230 Then, as he wended his way by swamp and stream and awful woodland, to the farmhouse where he happened to be quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching hour, fluttered his excited imagination, the moan of the whippoorwill* from the hillside, the boding cry of the tree-toad, that harbinger of 2 storm, the dreary hooting of the screech-owl, or the sudden. rustling in the thicket of birds frightened from their roost. The fireflies, too, which sparkled most vividly in the darkest places, now and then startled him, as one of uncommon bright 218. Cotton Mather, son of Increase Mather and grandson of John Cotton. He was born in Boston in 1663, was graduated at Harvard College in 1678, was ordained minister in Boston in 1684, and died in 1728. He has been blamed for his persecution of the supposed witches; but he sincerely believed he was serving God in "witch-hunting." He was a profound and industrious scholar. A contemporary declared that there were "hardly any books in existence with which Cotton Mather was not acquainted." His own publications number three hundred and eighty-two. 235. Boding (A.-S. bod, command; boda, messenger; bodian, to make an announcement: akin to bid), portending evil, menacing. *The whippoorwill is a bird which is only heard at night. It receives its name from its note, which is thought to resemble those words. |
