of the Hudson River there was a little village
where people told many terrible stories. The most terrible story was one about a headless horseman.Many years ago, a school teacher, Crane by name, lived in that village. Katrina Van Tassel lived in the same village. She was a beautiful young woman, and many young men wanted to marry her. Crane, also, loved her, and people thought she liked him. So all the other young men were against Crane, especially Brunt, a strong young man who was popular with the village people.
One afternoon Crane received a letter asking him to come to a party at Van Tassel’s house.
So Crane went to the party. There were many young people there. They were all dancing and enjoying themselves.
When the party was almost over, Crane suddenly left the ball-room with Katrina. The teacher did not look happy when they came back to the ball-room.
It was late in the night when Crane got on his horse and started back home. It was very dark in the forest, and he began remembering all terrible stories he had read about the headless horseman. Suddenly his horse stopped. Crane looked around. Near the river a horseman on a black horse stood. Then Crane’s horse started off again at a gallop. The black horse did the same. Crane heard it and looked behind him. He could not believe his eyes because the horseman was holding his head in his hand. Crane tried to get away and made his horse gallop faster and faster; but the headless horseman followed him. Then he threw the head at Crane. It hit Crane on the head throwing him off his horse. The headless horseman galloped past and disappeared.
The next morning people found Crane’s horse but nobody saw the school teacher himself. They went to look for him, and on the ground near the river they found only his hat and a large pumpkin.
A few years later, a farmer went to another village. When he came back, he brought news that Crane lived there and worked at school.
Some time after Crane disappeared, Brunt married Katrina. People still talked about the headless horseman. But when the story of Crane was told, the listeners saw that Brunt’s eyes became bright. So they thought that he knew more about it than he wanted to tell.
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