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Page 46
"They had been looking out of the coach-windows for the last few miles,
recognizing every tree and cottage as they approached home, and now
there was a general burst of joy. 'There's John! and there's old Carlo!
and there's Bantam!' cried the happy little rogues, clapping their
hands. At the end of a lane there was an old, sober-looking servant in
livery waiting for them; he was accompanied by a superannuated pointer,
and by the redoubtable Bantam, a little old rat of a pony, with a
shaggy mane and long, rusty tail, who stood dozing quietly by the
roadside, little dreaming of the bustling times that awaited him. Off
they set at last, one on the pony, with the dog bounding and barking
before him, and the others holding John's hands, both talking at once.
* * * We stopped a few moments afterward to water the horses, and on
resuming our route a turn of the road brought us in sight of a neat
country-seat. I could just distinguish the forms of a lady and two
young girls in the portico, and I saw my little comrades with Bantam,
Carlo, and old John trooping along the carriage-road. I leaned out of
the coach window in hopes of witnessing the happy meeting, but a grove
of trees shut it from my sight."
"If ever love, as poets sing, delights to visit a cottage, it must be
the cottage of an English peasant," Irving thinks, and goes on to write
in his own pleasant fashion of many pleasant things in English country
life, saying: "Those who see the Englishman only in town are apt to
form an unfavorable opinion of his social character. * * * Wherever he
happens to be, he is on the point of going somewhere else; at the
moment when he is talking on one subject, his mind is wandering to
another; and while he is paying a friendly visit, he is calculating how
he shall economize time so as to pay the other visits allotted in the
morning."
The "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a genuine ghost story. It is not very
startling, but very, very funny, when you know what scared poor Ichabod
Crane on his midnight ride that last time he went courting Governor
Wouter Van Twiller's only daughter.
You must read for yourselves the famous story of Rip Van Winkle and the
nap he took. It is too long for me to give in Irving's words, and "Rip
Van Winkle" is just such a story as no one but Irving knows how to
tell.
In another of his interesting stories in the "Sketch Book," told, he
says, by a queer old traveler to as queer a company gathered in a great
inn-kitchen, Irving describes the busy making-ready for a wedding. The
bride's father, he says, "had in truth nothing exactly to do."
Do you suppose he was content to do nothing "when all the world was in
a hurry?"
This is the way in which he helped: "He worried from top to bottom of
the castle with an air of infinite anxiety; he continually called the
servants from their work to exhort them to be diligent, and buzzed
about every hall and chamber as idly restless and importunate as a
blue-bottle fly on a warm summer's day." The book of Irving's that some
of you will like best of all is "The Alhambra." The Alhambra is the
ancient and romantic palace of the Moors. When he was in Spain, Irving
spent many dreamy days amid its ruined splendors, whence the last of
the Moors was long since driven into exile. We have good reason to be
glad that Irving saw the Alhambra, for this book is what came of it. We
shall all want to go where Irving went, after reading what he says of
the Alhambra by moonlight. "The garden beneath my window is gently
lighted up, the orange and citron trees are tipped with silver, the
fountain sparkles in the moonbeams, and even the blush of the rose is
faintly visible. * * * The whole edifice reminds one of the enchanted
palace of an Arabian tale."
These, you know, are only crumbs, and crumbs which show Irving's "warm
heart" more, perhaps, than his "fine brain."
To learn of his literary talent and well-deserved fame, of his rich
fancy and his wonderful ability for story-telling, you can better
afford to wait than to miss knowing how healthy, happy, and truly
lovable was this man's nature. Now, with only one of the many sober,
earnest thoughts, we must lay aside his books.
"If thou art a child, and hast ever added a sorrow to the soul, or a
furrow to the silvered brow of an affectionate parent; if thou art a
friend and hast ever wronged in thought, or word, or deed, the spirit
that generously confided in thee, then be sure that every unkind look,
every ungracious word, every ungentle action, will come thronging back
upon thy memory."
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