Halloween Rhetoric Project

Come on, yes, listen to the story of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irvine, if you're not too scared. It was so cheerily in the afternoon. The owl was dismal as himself. Far below him, the Tappan Vee spread its dusky and indistinct waist of waters, with here and there the tall mast of a sloop riding quietly at anchor under the land. In the dead hush of midnight, you could even hear the barking of the watchdogs on the opposite shore of the Hudson. It was so vague and faint, as only to get an idea of its distance from the faithful companion of man. Now and then, too, the long-drawn crowing of a cock accidentally awakened what would sound far, far off, from some farmhouse away down the hills. But it was like a dream inside his ear. No signs of life occurred near him. The location of the melancholy church was cricket, or perhaps the gullible twang of a bullfrog on a neighboring marsh, as if sleeping uncomfortably and turning suddenly in his bed. All of the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard in the afternoon now came crowding upon his recollection. The night grew darker and darker. The stars seemed to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from his sight. He never felt so lonely and dismal. He arose, moreover, approaching the very place where many of the scenes of the ghost stories had been laid. In the center of the world stood an enormous tulip tree, which towered like a giant above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a kind of landmark. Its wings were narrow but fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees. Twisting down almost to the earth, and rising again into the air, it was connected with the tragic ghost story of the unfortunate Andre, who had been taken prisoner out by an universally known other named Major Andre's Tree. This story was retold by Andrew Schmidt. The background music was accessed through the Free Music Archive and is moonshined by Jonathan Van Grant. All sound effects were accessed through freesound.org. Thank you for listening.