He
laid aside, too, all the dominant dignity and absolute sway with
which he lorded it in his little empire, the school, and became
wonderfully gentle and ingratiating. He found favor in the eyes
of the mothers by petting the children, particularly the
youngest; and like the lion bold, which whilom so magnanimously
the lamb did hold, he would sit with a child on one knee and rock
a cradle with his foot for whole hours together.
In addition to his other vocations, he was the singing-master of
the neighborhood and picked up many bright shillings by
instructing the young folks in psalmody. It was a matter of no
little vanity to him on Sundays to take his station in front of
the church-gallery with a band of chosen singers, where, in his
own mind, he completely carried away the palm from the parson.
Certain it is, his voice resounded far above all the rest of the
congregation, and there are peculiar quavers still to be heard in
that church, and which may even be heard half a mile off, quite
to the opposite side of the mill-pond on a still Sunday morning,
which are said to be legitimately descended from the nose of
Ichabod Crane. Thus, by divers little makeshifts in that
ingenious way which is commonly denominated "by hook and by
crook," the worthy pedagogue got on tolerably enough, and was
thought, by all who understood nothing of the labor of headwork,
to have a wonderfully easy life of it.
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