7

What Happened to Ichabod?

The next morning, Gumpowder was found without his

saddle. The horse was quierly easrting Grass in a field near
Hans Van Ripper’s fram. But there was no news of I
chabod Crane.
Ichabod’s pupils waited at the schoolhouse all morning.
But
the schoolmaster did not come. The boys and girls were
happy to miss their lessons. They ate apples and they
played on the Grass near the river.
By the afternoon, Hans Van Ripper began to worry about
Ichabos.
“What’s happend to him?” he asked himself. “and where’s
my best saddle”.
Hans Van Ripper went to find some men from the village.
“The schoolmaster has disappeared”, he told them. “We
must try to find him”.
The men looked for Ichabos for a log time, but they could
not find him. At last, they went to the old church by the
bridge. They found some marks in the road. They were the
marks made by two horses. The marks continued across the
bridge, then they disappeared in the grass.
“Look!” said one of the men suddenly. “There´s the
schoolmaster’s hat”.
Ichabod’s hat was on the road near the bridge. Beside the
hat, there was a very large. Soft pumpkin. The big,
round,yellow fruit was about the size of man’s head. It was
broken.