it is true , an old farmer , who had been down to new york on a visit several years after , and from whom this account of the ghostly adventure was received , brought home the intelligence that ichabod crane was still alive ; that he had left the neighborhood partly through fear of the goblin and hans van ripper , and partly in mortification at having been suddenly dismissed by the heiress ; that he had changed his quarters to a distant part of the country ; had kept school and studied law at the same time ; had been admitted to the bar ; turned politician ; electioneered ; written for the newspapers ; and finally had been made a justice of the ten pound court .