Page:Tea, a poem.pdf/19

19 the church gallarry, with a band of chosen singers; where, in his own mind, he completely carried away the palm from the parson. Certain it is, his voice resounded far above all the rest of the congregation; and there are peculier quivers still to be heard in that church, and may still 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 nose of Ichabod Crane. Thus by divers little makeshifts, in 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 labour of head-work, to have a wonderful easy life of it. Superstition.

But all these were nothing to the tales of ghosts and apparitions that suceeded. The neighbourhood is rich in legendary treasures of the kind. Local tales and superstitions thrive best in these sheltered long settled retreats; but are trampled under foot by the shifting throng that forms the popul-