Brom and
Ichabod both want to marry the lovely and wealthy Katrina. Brom realizes they are rivals and
itches to fight it out openly with Ichabod, the winner taking Katrina. Ichabod, skinny and
weaker than the tall, broad, muscular Brom, naturally evades that kind of battle. As the
narrator puts it, this avoidance of battle ("pacific system") is very irritating
("provoking") to Brom:
There was something
extremely provoking in this obstinately pacific system; it left Brom no alternative but to draw
upon the funds of rustic waggery in his disposition, and to play off boorish practical jokes
upon his rival.
Brom, therefore, gets together with his
"gang" and they play the following "practical jokes" on Ichabod
Crane:
They stop up the chimney and smoke out his singing school.
They break into his school at night and ransack it (turn it
"topsy-turvy").
Brom teases ("ridicules") Crane in front
of Katrina and teaches his dog to whine when he sees Crane.
Finally, Brom
fakes up the "headless horsemen" and terrifies Crane into running away and not coming
back.
Brom is popular, robust, and the "hero" of the piece, but he
comes across as a bully. We wonder how Katrina will fare with him as a
husband.
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