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CHAPTER V. 



The Hudson in Winter, — Snow Pictures. — 

 Castles and Ruins. — TJie River Towns, — 

 Story of Andre. — Legend of Sleepy 

 Hollow. — The Grave of Irving. 



It was a bright frosty morning when Fanny 

 and I left Irvington — upward bound along 

 the eastern bank of the Hudson. More snow 

 had fallen during the night covering the 

 sleigh tracks on the road, and now the fresh 

 north-west gale set the storm again in motion 

 from the ground, whirling the snow in fan- 

 tastic wreaths and shaking it down in huge 

 flakes from the overladen firs. It was some- 

 what blinding to the eyes and cutting to the 

 cheeks, it is true, but one is always willing to 

 pay a fee for a view of a fine picture, and this 

 trifling inconvenience was but a small tribute 

 to Nature for the exhibition of her wonderful 

 panorama of field and woodland, hills and dis- 

 tant mountains, with the broad intervening 



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