Pencil, a horse that fell through the ice on a pond on a Melbourne farm, stands up after being pulled from the water and onto the bank on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009 in Campbell County, Ky. Nearly 40 firefighters worked in frigid temperatures for more than an hour to rescue the horse. Doug Oldiges,owner, says the horse might have gone to the pond looking for water to drink because the heater on his water trough had stopped working.(AP Photo/The Cincinnati Enquirer , Patrick Reddy) MANDATORY CREDIT

Yosemite National Park is a place of extremes. It has high mountains. It has valleys formed by ancient ice that cut deep into the Earth millions of years ago. Water from high in the mountains falls in many places to the green valley far below. There are thirteen beautiful waterfalls in Yosemite Valley. One of these waterfalls, Yosemite Falls, is the fifth highest on Earth.

Up in the mountains are clear lakes, quick-moving small rivers, and huge formations of rock. One huge rock is called Half Dome. It rises more than two thousand seven hundred meters into the air.

Yosemite has a beautiful slow-moving river and large grassy areas where you can see wild animals. More than sixty kinds of animals live in the park. Deer are very common. You can see them almost everywhere. They have little fear of humans. You might even see a large black bear. You can also see two hundred different kinds of birds.

The story of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the area that is Yosemite National Park begins about five hundred million years ago. The area then was at the bottom of an ancient sea.

Scientists believe strong earthquakes forced the bottom of the sea to rise above the water. After millions of years, it was pushed up into the air to form land and mountains. At the same time, hot liquid rock from deep in the Earth pushed to the surface. This liquid rock slowly cooled. This cooling liquid formed a very hard rock known as granite.

Many centuries of rain caused huge rivers to move violently through this area. Over time, these rivers cut deep into the new mountains. During the great Ice Age, millions of tons of ice cut and shaped the cooled granite to form giant rocks. Millions of years later these would become the giant rocks called Half Dome and El Capitan in Yosemite Park.

Humans have lived in the area of Yosemite for more than four thousand years. The first people who lived there were hunters. Most were members of a tribe of Native Americans called the Miwok. They lived in Yosemite Valley near the river.

During the extremely cold winters, these people would move to lower, warmer areas. They would return when the winter months had passed.

  The first white Americans may have been hunters looking for fur animals. A famous American hunter and explorer named Joseph Walker passed through the area in the eighteen thirties. He reported about the huge rock formations and said there was no way to reach the valley below.

Citizens who had formed a military group were the first real modern explorers of the valley. They were at war with the local Indians and came into the valley. The white soldiers called the Indians Yosemites. The valley was named for the Indian tribe. Soon, reports of its great natural beauty were sent all the way back to Washington, D.C.

In eighteen sixty-four, a United States senator called for legislation to give the Yosemite Valley to the state of California as a public park. The legislation said the valley should be preserved and protected. President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill after Congress approved it.

This event was extremely important in the history of the United States. It was the first time that a government had approved a law to preserve and protect land because of its great beauty. The land was to be kept for the public to enjoy. Yosemite became the first state park. It was the first real park in the world. In eighteen ninety, it became a national park. The National Park Service is responsible for the park today. It is preserved and protected for all people to enjoy.

No major roads lead to Yosemite National Park. Visitors must leave the highways and drive their cars over smaller roads. Yosemite is about three hundred twenty kilometers east of San Francisco.

It is deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The roads leading to the park pass over lower parts of the huge mountains. Then the road goes lower and lower into the area of the park called Yosemite Valley.

Visitors can stay in different kinds of places in Yosemite Park. Several beautiful old hotels have been built on the property. Some are very costly. Others cost less. Many people bring temporary cloth homes called tents. It costs only a few dollars a day to place a tent in the approved areas.

Visitors can walk through many areas in the beautiful valley and the mountains. These walking paths are called trails. The National Park Service has improved more than one thousand one hundred kilometers of trails. It is fun to explore these trails. Some take only a few minutes to walk. Others can take several days to complete.

People come from all over the world to climb one of the huge rock formations at Yosemite. The most famous of these is called El Capitan. People who climb it call it "El Cap." Climbing El Cap is only for experts. This activity is called "hard rock climbing." It is extremely difficult and can be very dangerous.

A climber must have expert skill and great strength. The climb is straight up the face of a rock wall. Experts say it can take about three days to climb to the top of El Cap. The climbing is very slow. Climbers must look for cracks in the rock. They place their hands and feet in the cracks and then work their way up. They also use ropes and special equipment. From the bottom of the valley to the top of El Cap is about one thousand one hundred meters.

In the summer months, Yosemite Park is filled with visitors. Large buses bring people from San Francisco to spend the day.

They leave San Francisco very early in the morning and arrive back late at night. They drive from one place to another to see Yosemite. Other visitors come by car.

Some even come by bicycle. Some visit for just a few hours. Others take several days or weeks to enjoy the park. Many visitors come to Yosemite again and again. About four million people visit the park every year.

In the winter, heavy snow falls in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Yosemite. The snow usually begins to fall in the month of November. Heavy snow forces some of the roads into Yosemite to close during the winter months. The National Park Service works hard to keep most of the roads open.

Drivers must use special care because of ice and snow on the roads. They enjoy a special beauty never seen by the summer visitors. Many winter visitors come to Yosemite to spend their time skiing at Badger Pass. Badger ski area is the oldest in California. It has a ski school for those who want to learn the exciting sport.

Many visitors come to enjoy the park with its heavy coat of winter snow. In some areas the snow is many meters deep. Some of the tall mountains keep their snow until the last hot days of summer.

Whenever visitors come to Yosemite, they experience great natural beauty. A visit to the park provides lasting memories of what nature has produced. Most people who come to Yosemite usually bring a camera. They take many of pictures of the huge rocks, the beautiful Yosemite Valley, the waterfalls and the giant trees.

But you do not really need a photograph to remember its great natural beauty. Yosemite will leave its image in your memory forever.

(Paul Thompson)

A CHILLING book of soccer-style “stickers” showing Adolf Hitler has been unearthed by the family of a British soldier.

The black-and-white shots from the 1930s depict the Nazi leader in uniform addressing rallies and in candid scenes with children.

During the Third Reich, when Germany lived under the swastika flag, youngsters swapped the snaps in school playgrounds — just like the Panini football stickers of today.

Hitler’s propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels dreamt up the idea in a bid to put him in a good light.

One shot is of the Fuhrer with Goebbel’s daughter Helga.

Others show him skiing, dressed for dinner, on a train and with Italian dictator Mussolini.

The album of 138 images was brought home by a World War Two veteran.

It was recently found by his family and is expected to fetch hundreds of pounds when it is auctioned tomorrow in Ludlow, Shropshire.

Auctioneer Richard Westwood-Brookes said yesterday: “There are some stirring images. Some show Hitler’s more human side that we don’t often

Historian Dr Riccardo Bavaj, of St Andrews University, said: “The Nazis made movies, posters and albums to influence people in an almost subconscious way.”

A tall black woman is singing in a concert hall. Her eyes are closed. She is not looking at the crowd of people sitting silently before her. But she feels their presence. She tries to make the music touch their minds and hearts. Her deep, powerful voice reaches out to all parts of the concert hall.

She finishes, and there is a long silence. Then the people clap and cheer. They call out for another song. And they call out her name.

Marian Anderson was an American. But she found success in Europe before finding it in her own country. She was born in eighteen ninety-seven in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She grew up surrounded by poverty. Yet she remembered her family as a happy one.

The Andersons were deeply religious and involved in their church. It was in church where Marian first began to sing in public. She was six years old. The songs she sang were spirituals -- the religious songs that African Americans sang as slaves. The songs are about suffering, and the hope of a better life after death.

Marian's interest in music grew as she got older. When she was eight, her father brought home an old piano. She never thought she would be able to play it. One day, however, she heard piano music coming from an open window. She looked inside the house. There she saw a woman, playing ever so beautifully. Her skin was dark, like Marian's. She knew then that if another black woman could play the piano so could she.

The Andersons were too poor to pay someone to teach Marian. So she was able to teach herself only a few simple songs. Her voice remained her most important musical instrument.

Marian's father died when she was ten years old. She had to go to work to help support her family. She continued to sing at church on Sunday. Soon, other churches heard of the young girl with the beautiful, deep voice. They invited her to sing for them. Marian accepted. She began singing in African-American churches all over Philadelphia.

At about this time, several people told Marian that she should have a voice teacher. They told her that a beautiful voice can be destroyed if it is not trained. Marian said she always sang naturally, without any thought of how she did it. She realized that she would need some training.

The people in Marian's church were very proud of her. They wanted to help, even though many of them were as poor as the Anderson family. They collected enough money to pay for a few voice lessons. She went to a local music school in Philadelphia.

A group of girls was waiting to enter the school. Before Marian could enter, however, a young white woman who worked in the school told her to go away. "We do not take black people here," she said. Marian was shocked. Never before had anyone insulted her because of her race. Years later, she remembered her feelings:

"I just looked at the woman. I was shocked that such words could come from someone so young. I did not understand how a person surrounded by the joy of music could not have some of its sense and beauty inside her. It was as if a cold and horrible hand had touched me. I had never heard such brutal words. My skin was different, but not my feelings. "

Marian Anderson was to hear those hateful words many times again during her life.

Marian Anderson continued to sing at churches and special gatherings. Her singing became more widely known. But she still felt that her voice needed training. Finally, a friend promised to help her meet a well-known voice teacher. The teacher was Giuseppe Boghetti. Only the best singers in Philadelphia were his students.

Marian went to see Mister Boghetti. She was nervous, because she wanted to please him. He told her that he already had too many students. He made it clear that he would listen only because he knew her friend.  Marian's nervousness disappeared when she began to sing. The song she chose was one she knew best. It was called "Deep River".

Mister Boghetti sat quietly when Marian finished. There were tears in his eyes. Finally, he said: "You will start training at once. I will need just two years with you. After that, you will be able to go anywhere and sing for anybody. "

Marian Anderson was very happy. Her friends agreed to help pay for her lessons. Mister Boghetti taught her how to control and direct her voice. He also taught her how to breathe correctly. Marian learned to sing classical music -- the songs of the great European composers.

Marian Anderson grew to love opera, because it joined singing and acting. But Mister Boghetti advised her not to choose opera as a way to make a living. He knew that black singers in America were not permitted to sing with white opera groups. Instead, he told her she could be successful by singing in concert theaters. She followed his advice.

In nineteen twenty-four, Anderson sang in New York City for the first time. In those days, a singer had to be recognized in New York to be successful everywhere else. She sang in one of the most important concert theaters in the city -- Town Hall.

She sang some spirituals and some classical music. She wanted to make sure she would be judged as a singer who happened to be black -- not as a black singer.

Marian Anderson's town hall concert was not successful. Few people came to listen. The next day, newspapers sharply criticized her. They said she sang the European music without feeling or understanding. Anderson was crushed. She decided to return to Philadelphia. She thought about never singing again.

    Play Video Video: Exit Poll: Who are the first time voters AP

Play Video Video: How the Candidates Spent Election Day ABC News

Play Video Video: Thousands Gather For Obama Watch Party In Dallas CBS 11 Dallas

Barack Obama entered the final week of the campaign leading in national opinion polls and in many of the states that could decide the election.
BARACK OBAMA: "Do not believe for a second that this election is over. Do not think for a minute that power concedes. We have a lot of work to do. We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does depend on it this week!"
The Democrat began giving what his campaign called his "closing argument" in a speech last Monday in Ohio.
BARACK OBAMA: "John McCain might be worried about losing an election, but I am worried about Americans who are losing their homes and their jobs and their life savings. I can take one more week of John McCain's attacks, but this country cannot take four more years of the same failed politics and the same failed policies. It is time to try something new!"
John McCain was also in Ohio.
JOHN McCAIN: "With one week left in this campaign, the choice facing Americans is stark. My economic goals and policies are very clear."
Senator McCain wants to permanently extend President Bush's tax cuts. Senator Obama would let those tax cuts end. He says he wants tax cuts for the middle class, not the wealthy.
John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, have suggested that the plan amounts to socialism.
JOHN McCAIN: "And that is the problem with Senator Obama's approach to our economy. He is more interested in controlling wealth than creating it, in redistributing money instead of spreading opportunity. I am going to create wealth for all Americans by creating opportunity for all Americans!"
Ohio is a major battleground state. No Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio. The last Democrat to win without carrying that state was John Kennedy in nineteen sixty.
Ohio has twenty votes in the Electoral College and decided the last election. Two hundred seventy electoral votes are needed to win the presidency.
As of last week, the RealClearPolitics.com average of polls showed Ohio leaning toward Senator Obama.Pennsylvania has twenty-one electoral votes. John McCain was still campaigning there last week even as polls showed a solid lead for Barack Obama. By late in the week Senator Obama appeared to have lost some of his lead in Pennsylvania.
Florida has twenty-seven electoral votes and decided the disputed election of two thousand. As of last week polls showed that the race in Florida remained close.
The election will be historic, whoever wins the White House.
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois is the first black presidential candidate of a major party. And he has set new records for raising campaign money.
Senator John McCain of Arizona would at age seventy-two become the nation’s oldest first-term president. And Sarah Palin is the first woman on a Republican presidential ballot.
The next president will have a lot to do. The United States is fighting two wars. The situation is improving in Iraq but getting worse in Afghanistan. Barack Obama has promised to withdraw most troops from Iraq within sixteen months in office. John McCain supports the war and opposes setting time limits.
The top issue, though, is the economy. What began as a housing crisis is now America's worst financial crisis since the nineteen thirties. And it has spread around the world.
Throughout the campaign, Barack Obama sought to tie John McCain to the unpopular current occupant of the White House. He pointed to Senator McCain's record of voting with George W. Bush more than ninety percent of the time over the last eight years.
John McCain rejected the comparisons. And he, in turn, sought to tie Barack Obama to the unpopular, Democratic-led Congress, saying they would "tax and spend." In the closing days of the campaign, he warned increasingly of the dangers of one-party rule.
Barack Obama is forty-seven years old. He served eight years in the Illinois state senate. He was elected to the United States Senate in November of two thousand four.
Millions of Americans saw him for the first time that year when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention. He called on Americans to look beyond party politics and unite for the good of the country.
Barack Obama was born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. He knew little of his father. His parents divorced when he was two.
His mother was an anthropologist who for a time was on public assistance. His grandparents helped raise him after his mother moved to Indonesia. He spent part of his childhood in Jakarta after she married an Indonesian man.
Barack Obama graduated from Columbia University in New York City. After college he became a community organizer in Chicago, his adopted hometown. Later, at Harvard Law School, was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
His wife, Michelle, is also a Harvard-trained lawyer. She grew up in a working class family in Chicago. The Obamas have two young daughters.
Anti-Obama e-mails have said he is Muslim. He is Christian. He is also biracial but has said that he considers himself black. Nine out ten black voters support him. And polls have shown that many white voters who supported President Bush say they will vote for him over John McCain.
Yet one-third of voters in a recent New York Times-CBS News poll said they knew someone who will not support him mainly because he is black.
Eighty-two-year-old Bob Moller of Washington, D.C., is white. He says he plans to vote for Barack Obama partly because he believes the Democrat would help to heal some of the nation's racial wounds.
BOB MOLLER: "I hope I live long enough to see a black man in the White House with his family. That would make me joyous beyond words. Because of our history of slavery and all the aftermath, and it was not until the civil rights movement that things began to right themselves. It's just been disgraceful and embarrassing to me as a citizen."
Edika Onubah is a student at Howard University, a traditionally black school in Washington, D.C. Now that she is eighteen, she can vote for the first time.
EDIKA ONUBAH: "I'm voting for Barack Obama because when I watched him on television I felt that what he was saying was sincere, that he meant it, that he wants change."
Barack Obama has campaigned on a message of "Change We Need."
John McCain's message is "Country First."
Among those who plan to vote for him is Richard Peters, a retiree from New Jersey. He says he has been hit hard financially in recent weeks, but his major issue of concern in this election is terrorism.
RICHARD PETERS: "I am of the opinion that if we don't protect this country from terrorism and all the other free countries from terrorism then nothing else much matters."
John McCain was born on an American naval base in the Panama Canal Zone. His father and grandfather were admirals in the Navy. He studied at the Naval Academy and became a Navy pilot.
His plane was shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam War. He spent five and a half years as a prisoner of the communist North Vietnamese. He refused an offer of early release. He faced severe beatings. He returned home with permanent injuries to his arms -- but a war hero.
After retiring from the Navy, he was elected to the House of Representatives in nineteen eighty-two. Four years later he was elected to the Senate. He became known for working with Democrats and not always supporting his own party.
This is his second campaign for the White House. In two thousand he lost the Republican Party nomination to George Bush.
John McCain has had the most serious form of skin cancer, melanoma, most recently in two thousand two. He and his wife Cindy have four children, plus three from his first marriage. Cindy McCain heads one of the nation's largest beer distribution companies, which her father started.
Barack Obama's choice for vice president is Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. He is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Joe Biden is sixty-six years old and was first elected to the Senate in nineteen seventy-two.
Sarah Palin is forty-four and the governor of Alaska. She was elected in November of two thousand six. Earlier, she was mayor of the town of Wasilla for six years.
Barack Obama and John McCain have talked a lot about change. But many of the changes they propose require approval by Congress.
All four hundred thirty-five seats in the House of Representatives will be on Tuesday's ballot. The Democrats currently hold a thirty-seven-seat majority.
In the Senate, which has one hundred seats, just over a third will be decided. The Democrats now have a two-seat majority. The party hopes to win at least six more.
Record numbers of Americans have already been voting. The majority of states now permit early voting in person or by mail even without the need for an excuse. Nationally, about one-third of voters are expected to cast their ballots early this year. Both major parties have thousands of lawyers ready for Election Day in case of problems with voting.

 

 

 

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The battle for the most-tilted-tower title has gotten downright medieval, with a 13th-century German church flattening the circa-1372 Leaning Tower of Pisa's record, Guinness World Records announced this week.

Compromised by a wooden foundation and sodden soil, the Suurhusen church's 15th-century steeple addition tilts at a 5.07-degree angle, versus the Italian tower's current 3.97 degrees, according to Olaf Kuchenbecker of Guinness World Records' German office.

"When you lay photos of the two next to each other, you can see it relatively clearly," Kuchenbecker told the Reuters news agency.

The ornate 185-foot-tall (56-meter-tall) Pisa edifice, though, would tower over the 84-foot-tall (26-meter-tall) village landmark.

A woozy foundation isn't all the two landmarks have in common. Today both are mainly tourist attractions, with the Suurhusen church hosting services only on major holidays.

And both were stabilized in the 1990s. The Leaning Tower of Pisa was actually somewhat straightened, perhaps depriving it of Guinness fame.

 

 

 

 

November 19, 2007—Captured just before midnight on November 13 by fishers in Cambodia, this Mekong Gain Catfish is 8 feet long (2.4 meters long) ands weighs 450 pounds (204 kilograms).
"This is the only giant catfish that has been caught this year so far, making it the worst year on record for catch of giant fish species," said Zeb Hogan (far right), a fisheries biologist at the University of Reno in Nevada.

After collecting data on the fish, Hogan released it unharmed.

Giant catfish were once plentiful throughout Southeast Asia's Mekong River watershed, including the Tonle Sap River—home of the fish near Phnom Penh.

But in the last century the Mekong giant catfish population has declined by 95 to 99 percent, scientists say. Only a few hundred adult giant catfish may remain.

Since 2000 five to ten fish have been caught by accident each year throughout the Mekong area.

 

 

 

 

     

"To barnstorm" meaning to travel across the country to get the widest public support for a political or economic program.
Before television, American Presidents found it difficult to reach the people of the small towns and villages for political support --grass-roots support as it is called. At first, political leaders or candidates for office had to travel by train to small out-of-the-way places. They were called whistle stops because trains did not usually stop there. You had to use a special whistle to make them do so. With the arrival of the train, a small group of country people would gather around the back of the last car of the train. On the open platform, the President or presidential candidate would speak directly to those who came to hear him. It was an event to be remembered.

Whistle-stop campaigning was an old political tradition that came from the earliest days of American independence. Of course, train-travel was slow. But, then, travel by air came into use. It was faster, and a candidate could cover much more ground. That was "barnstorming" in the old sense of the word. And many Presidents and candidates were very successful because they showed a special skill in being able to talk to grass-roots groups -- to the farmers and agricultural workers of the nation and to the industrial workers of small towns. Some modern Presidents went barnstorming when they could not get the approval of Congress for important programs, or failed to get legislative support in the field of foreign policy.

The phrase, "to barnstorm," is an old expression that was taken from the theater. It goes far back to the time when there were few theaters or halls for traveling actors or entertainers. They produced their plays in the barns of country villages. Many of these traveling players were ham actors. That is how many people felt about them. They seemed to overact and spoke their lines like amateurs and badly trained actors. But they thought their acting was so effective that they took their audiences by storm. Thus, the phrase, "to barnstorm." Some of these village-barn audiences, however, liked this noisy style of acting and speaking, and groups of ham actors took the barns by storm like soldiers.

Some time around the middle 1800es "barnstorming" became part of American political language to describe quick visits by political speakers to small country towns. Some may have made speeches in barns, but usually they were made in the village square, out in the open. Barnstorming, as we have long known it, is slowly disappearing. In most out-of-the-way villages, people can listen to the President or political candidates on television. Still, many political candidates like meeting people face to face and talking directly to them. Moreover, television is very costly, and many candidates do not have the money to campaign by TV. So, the old methods of campaigning are not completely dead. There is more life to "barnstorming" than the cold, stagy image of a television screen.

Words and Their Stories today is "bogus". Anything that is bogus is not real. It pretends to be real and may even look real, but it is not. In fact, the only thing that is real about "bogus" is that it is pure American-born in the early 1800's. No one is sure where the word came from.

The first time it appeared in print was in 1827 in Ohio. At that time police found a group of men who were coining false or counterfeit money. A large crowd gathered around to look at the strange machine that was used to make the money. Someone in the crowd said that the machine looked like a bogus. Well, the next day, the local newspaper used the word, "bogus," and it became part of the language. From then on, the machine used by counterfeiters was called a "bogus press." Of course, it was easy to widen the use of the word now that it had been invented. Counterfeit or false money was soon called "bogus money." And as the years passed, any article that was not the real was called "bogus." But that is only one story about the birth of bogus.

The Boston Courier, a newspaper that died a long time ago, said that the word, "bogus," came from a famous swindler with the Italian name of Borghese. "Borghese," the paper said, "became famous by writing bad checks, cashing them at banks and stores, then leaving town in a hurry. In 1837, Borghese was known throughout the South and the West for his worthless checks, bills of exchange, and notes."

In time," the newspaper said, "the name, Borghese, was shortened to become "bogus".

Today, we have "bogus money," "bogus mines," "bogus hair," "bogus diamonds," and so on.

Speaking of bogus diamonds reminds me of a vacation I took many years ago in New York City. I was waiting for a train home after two delightful weeks in the city, when a man came up to me and asked softly if I would like to buy a genuine diamond ring. His manner led me to believe that perhaps he had found the ring and wanted money quickly. Little did I realize that he was what is known as a small-time swindler, a cheat, a con man. He showed me the ring and asked for $15. It looked real, but then I said, "A real diamond will scratch glass, won't it?" He pulled me over to a store window and scratched the diamond against the glass and made a deep cut. I gave him the money. I put the ring on my finger and got on the train, feeling I had made a good bargain. Why, the diamond would pay for my trip!

When I got home, I showed the ring to my wife. She asked me to take it off my finger which I did. My finger was green. The ring itself was copper, not gold or gold plate. The diamond was a bogus diamond. I started to get angry.

"Why that cheat!" I said. "That swindler!"
My wife looked at me and smiled.
"Yes" she said, "he was a swindler but so were you. You knew, when you paid him $15, that a real diamond is worth much more than that. So both of you were trying to get the better of the other. Only you lost."

I looked at my bogus diamond and then put it away. I still have it just to remind myself that what might seem real could be bogus.

 

(Written by Washington Irving)

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is about something strange that happed long ago in a valley called "Sleepy Hollow". 

Narrator: The valley known as Sleepy Hollow hides from the world in the high hills of New York state. There are many stories told about the quiet valley. But the story that people believe most is about a man who rides a horse at night. The story says the man died many years ago during the American revolutionary war. His head was shot off. Every night he rises from his burial place, jumps on his horse and rides through the valley looking for his lost head.

 

Near Sleepy Hollow is a village called Tarry Town. It was settled many years ago by people from Holland. The village had a small school. And one teacher, named Ichabod Crane. Ichabod Crane was a good name for him, because he looked like a tall bird, a crane. He was tall and thin like a crane. His shoulders were small, joined two long arms. His head was small, too, and flat on top. He had big ears, large glassy green eyes and a long nose.

Ichabod did not make much money as a teacher. And although he was tall and thin, he ate like a fat man. To help him pay for his food he earned extra money teaching young people to sing. Every

 

Sunday after church Ichabod taught singing.

 

Among the ladies Ichabod taught was one Katrina Van Tassel. She was the only daughter of a rich Dutch farmer. She was a girl in bloom…much like a round red, rosy apple. Ichabod had a soft and foolish heart for the ladies, and soon found himself interested in Miss Van Tassel.

Ichabod's eyes opened wide when he saw the riches of Katrina's farm: the miles of apple trees and wheat fields, and hundreds of fat farm animals. He saw himself as master of the Van Tassel farm with Katrina as his wife.

But there were many problems blocking the road to Katrina's heart. One was a strong young man named Brom Van Brunt.  Brom was a hero to all the young ladies. His shoulders were big. His back was wide. And his hair was short and curly. He always won the horse races in Tarry Town and earned many prizes. Brom was never seen without a horse.

Sometimes late at night Brom and his friends would rush through town shouting loudly from the backs of their horses. Tired old ladies would awaken from their sleep and say: "Why, there goes Brom Van Brunt leading his wild group again!"

Such was the enemy Ichabod had to defeat for Katrina's heart.

Stronger and wiser men would not have tried. But Ichabod had a plan. He could not fight his enemy in the open. So he did it silently and secretly. He made many visits to Katrina's farm and made her think he was helping her to sing better.

Time passed, and the town people thought Ichabod was winning. Brom's horse was never seen at Katrina's house on Sunday nights anymore.

One day in autumn Ichabod was asked to come to a big party at the Van Tassel home. He dressed in his best clothes. A farmer loaned him an old horse for the long trip to the party.

The house was filled with farmers and their wives, red-faced daughters and clean, washed sons. The tables were filled with different things to eat. Wine filled many glasses.

Brom Van Brunt rode to the party on his fastest horse called Daredevil. All the young ladies smiled happily when they saw him. Soon music filled the rooms and everyone began to dance and sing.

Ichabod was happy dancing with Katrina as Brom looked at them with a jealous heart. The night passed. The music stopped, and the young people sat together to tell stories about the revolutionary war.

Soon stories about Sleepy Hollow were told. The most feared story was about the rider looking for his lost head. One farmer told how he raced the headless man on a horse. The farmer ran his horse faster and faster. The horseman followed over bush and stone until they came to the end of the valley. There the headless horseman suddenly stopped. Gone were his clothes and his skin. All that was left was a man with white bones shining in the moonlight.

The stories ended and time came to leave the party. Ichabod seemed very happy until he said goodnight to Katrina. Was she ending their romance? He left feeling very sad. Had Katrina been seeing Ichabod just to make Brom Van Brunt jealous so he would marry her?

Well, Ichabod began his long ride home on the hills that surround Tarry Town. He had never felt so lonely in his life. He began to whistle as he came close to the tree where a man had been killed years ago by rebels.

He thought he saw something white move in the tree. But no, it was only the moonlight shining and moving on the tree. Then he heard a noise. His body shook.  He kicked his horse faster. The old horse tried to run, but almost fell in the river, instead. Ichabod hit the horse again. The horse ran fast and then suddenly stopped, almost throwing Ichabod forward to the ground.

There, in the dark woods on the side of the river where the bushes grow low, stood an ugly thing. Big and black. It did not move, but seemed ready to jump like a giant monster.

Ichabod's hair stood straight up. It was too late to run, and in his fear, he did the only thing he could. His shaking voice broke the silent valley.

"Who are you?" The thing did not answer. Ichabod asked again. Still no answer. Ichabod's old horse began to move forward. The black thing began to move along the side of Ichabod's horse in the dark. Ichabod made his horse run faster. The black thing moved with them. Side by side they moved, slowly at first. And not a word was said.

Ichabod felt his heart sink. Up a hill they moved above the shadow of the trees. For a moment the moon shown down and to Ichabod's horror he saw it was a horse. And it had a rider. But the rider's head was not on his body. It was in front of the rider, resting on the horse.

Ichabod kicked and hit his old horse with all his power. Away they rushed through bushes and trees across the valley of Sleepy Hollow. Up ahead was the old church bridge where the headless horseman stops and returns to his burial place.

"If only I can get there first, I am safe," thought Ichabod. He kicked his horse again. The horse jumped on to the bridge and raced over it like the sound of thunder. Ichabod looked back to see if the headless man had stopped. He saw the man pick up his head and throw it with a powerful force. The head hit Ichabod in the face and knocked him off his horse to the dirt below.

They found Ichabod's horse the next day peacefully eating grass. They could not find Ichabod.

They walked all across the valley. They saw the foot marks of Ichabod's horse as it had raced through the valley. They even found Ichabod's old hat in the dust near the bridge. But they did not find Ichabod. The only other thing they found was lying near Ichabod's hat.

It was the broken pieces of a round orange pumpkin.

The town people talked about Ichabod for many weeks. They remembered the frightening stories of the valley. And finally they came to believe that the headless horseman had carried Ichabod away.

Much later an old farmer returned from a visit to New York City. He said he was sure he saw Ichabod there. He thought Ichabod silently left Sleepy Hollow because he had lost Katrina.

As for Katrina, her mother and father gave her a big wedding when she married Brom Van Brunt. Many people who went to the wedding saw that Brom smiled whenever Ichabod's name was spoken. And they wondered why he laughed out loud when anyone talked about the broken orange pumpkin found lying near Ichabod's old dusty hat.