Anonymous

“ From hence the low murmur of his pupil's voices, conning over their lessons, might be heard in a drousy summer's day, like the hum of a bee-hive; interrupted now and then by the authoritative voice, of the master, in the the tone of menace or command; 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, that ever bore in mind the golden maxim, "Spare the road and the child."—Ichabod Crane's scholars certainly were not spoiled. ”

“ He laid asside too all the dominant dignity and absolute sway with which he lorded it in his little empire, the school, and became wonderful gentile and ingratiating. He found favour in the eyes of the mothers, by petting the children, particuarly the youngest; and like the lion bold, which whilom so magnimously the lamb did hold, he would sit with a child on one knee, and rock a cradle for whole hours together.
In addition to his other vocations, he was the siniging master of the neighbourhood, and picked up many bright shillings by instrusting the young folks in psalmody. ”

“ 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 a thief might get in with perfect case, he would find some embarrassment in getting out; an idea most probably borrowed by the architect, Yost Van Houten from the mystry of an eel-pot. The schoolhouse stood in a rather lonely but pleasan, situaiion, just at the foot of a woody hill with brook running close by, and a formidable birch tree growing at one end of it. ”