Rip Van Winkle

 

Rip Van Winkle

At the foot of koatskill mountain there was a village. There were the houses of the orignal settlers, of Small yellow bricks brought from having latticed windows and gabled fronts surmounted with weather cocks.

          In one of these house there lived a very simple good natured fellow of  name Rip Van Winkle.          He was great favrouite in the village . The children of the village would shout with joy whevever he appooached.He assisted  at their sports made there playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles and told them long stories of Ghosts, and wiches.

          The great error in Rip’s compostion was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable laboura. Rip was ready to attend to any body’s business but his own but as to any body business duty and keeping his form in order he found it impossible.

          In fact he declared it was of no use to work on his farm his fences were continually falling to pieces ; his cow would either go astray or get among the cabbaqes His children too were as ragged as and wild as if they beloned to nobody.

          His wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness his careless ness and the ruin he brought for his family. Morning, noon and night her tounge was incessantly going and every thing he said was or did was sure to produces a torrent household  eloquence.

          Rip’s sole domestic adherent was his dog  wolf who was as much henpecked as his master.

          Time Grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle when driven from home Rip used to sit with philosophers, and other idle personaqes of the village held it session on a bench before a small inn to eseape from th labaour of the farm and clamor of his wife with his gun stroll away in to the woods. Here he would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree and share the contents of his wallct with wolf.