Rip Van Winkle

Washington Irvine 1819

He perpetual used to console himself by frequenting a kind of club
of the personages, which held sages, its philosophers and other sessions before
a small inn.

Certain biscuit-bakers have gone so far as to imprint his
Hkeness on their New- Year Cakes  

A curtain-lecture is worth all the sermons in the world
for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering  

he was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and an obedient hen-pecked husband. Indeed, to the latter
circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him
such universal popularity; for those men are most apt to be obsequious and
conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home.  

The great error in Rip’s composition was an insuperable aversion to all
kinds of profitable labor.  

It could not be from the want of assiduity or
perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy
as a Tartar’s lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he
should not be encouraged by a single nibble  

For a long while he used to console himself, when driven from home, by
frequenting a kind of perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other 
 RIP VAN WINKLE idle personages of the village; which held its sessions on a bench before a
small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty George the
Third. Here they used to sit in the shade through a long, lazy summer’s
day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling endless sleepy stories
about nothing.   

He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the village inn—
but it too was gone. A large rickety wooden building stood in its place,
with great gaping windows, some of them broken and mended with old
hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted, “The Union Hotel, by
Jonathan Doolittle.”   

The very character of the people seemed changed. There was a
busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the accustomed
phlegm and drowsy tranquillity  

“A tory! a tory! a spy!
a refugee! hustle him! away with him!”