One day, a new pupil joined Ichabod’s group of psalm singers. Her name was Katrina Van Tassel, and she was the daughter of Baltus Van Tassel, an old farmer. Baltus Van Tassel’s farm was a few miles from Sleepy Hollow.
Katrina was eighteen years old and she was very beautiful. She had golden blond hair and she liked wearing pretty clothes. All the young men in the area admired Katrina. And Katrina knew this. She enjoyed this admiration very much.
“Katrina is a very pretty girl,” said the people of the area. “Her skirts are too short now! But one day, she will be a good wife for somebody. Her husband will be a very lucky man. He will marry Katrina and he’ll get her father’s farm too.”
Katrina was Baltus Van Tassel’s only child. She had no brothers or sisters. So when her parents died, Katrina was going to inherit the farm. The land and everything on it was going to be hers. One day, she was going to be rich.
3
Ichabod Crane liked women. But when he first met Katrina, he forgot about all other women.
Soon after he met Katrina, Ichabod visited the Van Tassel’s farmhouse. It stood in a wide, grassy place on the bank of the Hudson River. As Ichabod rode up to the farmhouse, he saw cows, geese, ducks, turkeys and hens. They all looked very fat and healthy.
At once, Ichabod began to feel hungry. He thought about huge and wonderful dinners.
“Those chickens will taste delicious when they are cooked,” he thought. “And those geese and turkeys will be wonderful in pies. And the ducks will be very good with onions.”
Then Ichabod looked at all the land which belonged to the farm. He saw fields of golden corn. He saw hundreds of fruit trees, their branches covered with ripe fruit. And when Ichabod saw all these things, he started dreaming about his future life.
“This place is perfect,” he said to himself. “If I marry Katrina, I’ll have an easy life. I won’t have to work. There’ll be lots of delicious food all the time. Katrina will take good care of me. I’ll be very comfortable here with her and our children.
“Perhaps we’ll sell the farm one day,” he thought. “We’ll get a lot of money and then we’ll travel to another part of America.”
Ichabod was happy. And when he entered the farmhouse, he felt even happier. The kitchen was large, warm and comfortable. There was a wonderful smell of food. There were large baskets full of fruit and vegetables, ready for cooking.
In the living room, the fine wooden furniture shone in the sunlight. The cupboards were full of silver plates and china dishes.
From that time, Ichabod thought day and night about Katrina. “I must marry her,” he said to himself. “There’s a wonderful life waiting for me on that farm.