rth the gathering; there was money
in the ground for him. The individual seems to count in farming, same
as in everything else.

Just out of Claremont a young fellow was thrown from his runabout, his
horse being frightened at an automobile, and it was only the quickness
of the chauffeur that saved him from being run over. Did he curse the
rich man's machine? Not he! His only idea was to find another and show
his "new animal" who was master! Aside from this irritating feature,
the whole affair was a huge joke on him. He was as handsome and
wholesome looking as good health and an outdoor life could make a
man.

[Sidenote: _LINDENWALD--JESSE MERWIN._]

Some two miles out of Kinderhook stands Lindenwald, to which
Ex-President Van Buren retired. The house was built by Judge William
P. Van Ness, previously mentioned. Washington Irving was a welcome and
frequent guest in the Van Ness household, and it was in this
neighborhood that he became acquainted with Jesse Merwin, school
teacher, prototype of Ichabod Crane in the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow."
The two men were the best of friends, and the caricature does not seem
to have cooled their pleasant relations. The schoolhouse stands on the
roadside, somewhat nearer the village; at least the building pointed
out as such is there, but in a letter to Merwin, Irving regrets that
the old schoolhouse is torn down "where, after my morning's literary
task was over, I used to come and wait for you, occasionally, until
school was dismissed. You would promise to keep back the punishment of
some little tough, broad-bottomed Dutch boy, until I could come, for
my amusement--but never kept your promise."

The following notice of the death of "Ichabod Crane" appeared in the
Westchester Herald for November 30, 1852:

"Jesse Merwin died at Kinderhook on the 8th instant, at the age of
seventy years. Mr. Merwin was well known in this community as an
upright, honorable man, in whom there was no guile. He was for many
years a Justice of the Peace, the duties of which office he discharged
with scrupulous fidelity and conscientious regard to the just claims
of suitors, ever frowning upon those whose vocation it is to "foment
discord and perplex right." At an early period of his life, and while
engaged in school teaching, he passed much of his time in the society
of Washington Irving, then a preceptor in the family of the late Judge
Van Ness, of this town.

"Both were engaged in congenial pursuits