untold story? To grieve always was not in his nature; or, when he had his sorrow, to bring all the world in to condole with him and bemoan it. Deep and quiet he lays the love of his heart, and buries it; and grass and flowers 5 grow over the scarred ground in due time.

Irving had such a small house and such narrow rooms, because there was a great number of people to occupy them. He could only afford to keep one old horse (which, lazy and aged as it was, managed once or twice to run away with that 10 careless old horseman). Irving could only live very modestly, because the wifeless, childless man had a number of children to whom he was as a father. He had as many as nine nieces, I am told - I saw two of these ladies at his house with all of whom the dear old man had shared the produce of his 15 labor and genius.

"Be a good man, my dear!" One can't but think of these last words of the veteran Chief of Letters, who had tasted and tested the value of worldly success, admiration, prosperity. Was Irving not good, and, of his works, was not 20 his life the best part? In his family, gentle, generous, good-humored, affectionate, self-denying in society, a delightful example of complete gentlemanhood; quite unspoiled by prosperity; never obsequious to the great (or, worse still, to the base and mean, as some public men are 25 forced to be in his and other countries); eager to acknowledge every contemporary's merit; always kind and affable to the young members of his calling; in his professional bargains and mercantile dealings delicately honest and grateful; one of the most charming masters of our lighter

language the constant friend to us and our nation; to men of letters doubly dear, not for his wit and genius merely, but as an examplar of goodness, probity and pure life. I don't know what sort of testimonial will be raised to him in his own country, where generous and enthusiastic acknowledg-5 ment of American merit is never wanting: but Irving was in our service as well as theirs; and as they have placed a stone at Greenwich yonder in memory of that gallant young Bellot, who shared the perils and fate of some of our Arctic seamen, I would like to hear of some memorial raised by 10 English writers and friends of letters in affectionate remembrance of the dear and good Washington Irving.

HELPS TO STUDY

Thackeray, who wrote this fine tribute to Irving as man and author, had himself much of the gentleness and charm that he speaks of in Irving. He had made two highly successful lecturing tours in the United States, in 1852–3 and in 1854-5, and was much interested in American life and iiterature. The article from which this selection is taken was written in 1859, just after Irving's death. The reference to him as the first ambassador" does not mean as ambassador of the state, but of the world of letters; that is, he was the first American author in England. He was, however, for a time, secretary to the embassy in Spain, and in England, and later was appointed ambassador to Spain. The reference to the pater patriæ, father of his country, is to Washington, and the incident mentioned occurred when Irving was a child of six.

1. How does Thackeray say Irving impressed the English people? 2. How did he affect the relations between his country and England? 3. What distinguished Englishmen especially liked him? 4. What honor did the English confer upon him? 5. Where was he when he wrote the book that made him famous? What was this book? 6. How was he

received when he returned to America? 7. How did he act under these attentions? 8. What does Thackeray say of party spirit in this country? 9. Where did Irving live on his return here? 10. What is told of his life, and of his family circle? 11. The "veteran Chief of Letters was Sir Walter Scott. What did he write? 12. With what wish does this selection end?

For Study with the Glossary: Ambassador, artless, disseminate, rancor, arrogance, rapacious, callous, tradition, solicitous, critic, intrigued, notoriously, condole, bemoan, paragraph-mongers, obsequious, contemporary, mercantile, probity.

For Oral and Written Composition: 1. Irving's life. 2. Thackeray's opinion of Irving. 3. Irving in England. 4. Other popular writers

of whom you know.

Lowell, in his "Fable for Critics," also praises the charm and gentleness of Irving:

66

'What! Irving? thrice welcome, warm heart and fine brain,

You bring back the happiest spirit from Spain,

And the gravest sweet humor that ever were there

Since Cervantes met death in his gentle despair;

Nay, don't be embarrassed, and look so beseeching," —

here Lowell goes on to say that he will not embarrass Irving by comparing him to the great Cervantes, and ends by calling him

"A choice nature, not wholly deserving

A name either English or Yankee, — just Irving."

ICHABOD CRANE

I. THE PARTY

Near Tarrytown on the Hudson is a little valley known as Sleepy Hollow, which was supposed to be haunted by a headless horseman who rode like the wind through the valley, hurrying back to the churchyard before daybreak. Ichabod Crane was a Yankee from Connecticut who kept school in the Hollow and was courting a pretty Dutch girl at Tarrytown. He was a singing master as well as schoolmaster, and his voice, so it was said, could be heard a mile away. His rival in love was nicknamed Brom Bones. Brom is short for Abraham, and he was called Bones because he was so large and strong, and fond of adventure. The story tells how Brom Bones manages to get rid of Ichabod.

On a fine autumnal afternoon, Ichabod, in pensive mood, sat enthroned on the lofty stool whence he usually watched all the concerns of his little literary realm. In his hand he swayed a ferule, that scepter of despotic power; the birch of justice reposed on three nails, behind the throne, 5 a constant terror to evil-doers; while on the desk before him might be seen sundry contraband articles and prohibited weapons, detected upon the persons of idle urchins; such as half-munched apples, pop-guns, whirligigs, fly-cages, and whole legions of rampant little paper gamecocks. 10 Apparently there had been some appalling act of justice recently inflicted, for his scholars were all busily intent upon their books, or slyly whispering behind them with one eye kept upon the master; and a kind of buzzing stillness reigned throughout the schoolroom. It was 15

suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a negro, in towcloth jacket and trousers, a round-crowned fragment of a hat, like the cap of Mercury, and mounted on the back of a ragged, wild, half-broken colt, which he managed with a 5 rope by way of halter. He came clattering up to the school door with an invitation to Ichabod to attend a merrymaking, or "quilting frolic," to be held that evening at Mynheer Van Tassel's.

10 room.

All was now bustle and hubbub in the late quiet schoolThe scholars were hurried through their lessons, without stopping at trifles; those who were nimble skipped over half with impunity, and those who were tardy had a smart application now and then in the rear, to quicken their speed, or help them over a tall word. Books were 15 flung aside without being put away on the shelves, inkstands were overturned, benches thrown down, and the whole school was turned loose an hour before the usual time, bursting forth like a legion of young imps, yelping and racketing about the green, in joy at their early emancipation. 20 The gallant Ichabod now spent at least an extra halfhour at his toilet, brushing and furbishing up his best, and indeed his only, suit of rusty black, arranging his looks by a bit of broken looking-glass, that hung up in the schoolhouse. That he might make his appearance before his mistress 25 in the true style of a cavalier, he borrowed a horse from the

farmer with whom he was domiciliated, a choleric old Dutchman, of the name of Hans Van Ripper, and thus gallantly mounted issued forth, like a knight-errant in quest of adventures.