RIP VAN WINKLE.

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A POSTHUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDRIICKERBOCKER.

 By Woden, God of Saxons,

 From whenes Wensday, that is Wodensday,

 Truth is a thing that ever I will keep

 Unto thylke day in which I creep into

 My sepulchre--

 CARTWRIGHT.

 [The following Tale was found among the papers of the late Diedriickerbocker, an old gentleman of New York, who was very curious ich History of the provind the manners of the desdants from its primitive settlers. His historical researches, however, did not lie so much among books as among men; for the former are lamentably sty on his favorite topics; whereas he found the old burghers, and still more, their wives, ri that legendary lore, so invaluable to true history.

 Wheherefore, he happened upon a gech family, snugly shut up in its low-roofed farm-house, under a spreading sycamore, he looked upon it as a little clasped volume of black-letter, and studied it with the zeal of a bookworm.

 The result of all these researches was a history of the province, during the reign of the Dutch governors, which he published some years sihere have been various opinions as to the literary character of his work, and, to tell the truth, it is not a whit better than it should be. Its chief merit is its scrupulous accuracy, whideed was a little questioned on its ?rst appearance, but has since been pletely established; and it is now admitted into all historical colles, as a book of uiohority.

 The old gentleman died shortly after the publication of his work; and now that he is dead and go ot do much harm to his memory to say that his time might have been much better employed iier labors. He, however, t to ride his hobby his own way; and though it did now and then kick up the dust a little in the eyes of his neighbors, and grieve the spirit of some friends, for whom he felt the truest deferend affe, yet his errors and follies are remembered "more in sorrow than in anger," and it begins to be suspected, that he never inteo injure or offend. But however his memory may be appreciated by critics, it is still held dear among many folks, whose good opinion is well worth having; particularly by certain biscuit-bakers, who have gone so far as to imprint his likeness on their new-year cakes, and have thus given him a mortality, almost equal to the being stamped on a Waterloo medal, or a Queen Annes farthing.] WHOEVER has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appala family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and l it over the surrounding try. Every ge of season, every ge of weather, indeed, every hour of the day produces some ge in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains; and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair aled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a of glory.

 At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up from a Village, whose shingle roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upla away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch ists, in the early times of the province, just about the beginning of the gover of the good Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!), and there were some of the houses of the inal settlers standing within a few years, built of small yellow bricks, brought from Holland, having latticed windows and gable fronts, surmounted with weathercocks.

 In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn aher-beaten), there lived, many years since, while the try was yet a province of Great Britain, a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a desdant of the Van Winkles who ?gured so gallantly in the chivalrous days of Peter Stuyvesant, and apanied him to the siege of Fort Christina.

 He ied, however, but little of the martial character of his aors. I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and an obedient henpecked husband. Io the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him suiversal popularity; for those me to be obsequious and ciliating abroad, who are uhe discipline of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the ?ery furnace of domestic tribulation, and a curtaiure is worth all the sermons in the world for teag the virtues of patiend long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects, be sidered a tolerable blessing, and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed.

 Certain it is, that he was a great favorite among all the good wives of the village, who, as usual with the amiable sex, took his part in all family squabbles, and never failed, whehey talked those matters over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the blame on Dame Van Wihe children of the village, too, would shout with joy whenever he approached. He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to ?y kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, witches, and Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the village, he was surrounded by a troop of them hanging on his skirts, clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on him with impunity; and not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood.

 The great error in Rips position was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of pro?table labor. It could not be for want of assiduity or perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartars lance, and ?sh all day without a murmur, even though he should not be enced by a single nibble. He would carry a fowling-pie his shoulder, for hours together, trudging through woods and ss, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor even in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man in all try frolics for husking Indian , or building stone fehe women of the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word, Rip was ready to attend to anybodys business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible.

 In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his farm; it was the most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole try; everything about it went wrong, in spite of him. His fences were tinually falling to pieces; his cow would either go astray, et among the cabbages; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his ?elds than anywhere else; the rain always made a point of setting in just as he had some out-door work to do; so that though his patrimonial estate had dwindled away under his ma, acre by acre, until there was little more left than a mere patch of Indian and potatoes, yet it was the worst-ditioned farm in the neighborhood.

 His children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they beloo nobody. His son Rip, an ur begotten in his own likeness, promised to i the habits, with the old clothes, of his father. He was generally seen trooping like a colt at his mothers heels, equipped in a pair of his fathers cast-off galligaskins, which he had much ado to hold up with one hand, as a ?ne lady does her train in bad weather.

 Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself, he would have whistled life away, in perfect te; but his wife kept tinually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family. M, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and every thing he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to all lectures of the kind, and that, by frequent use, had grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. This, however, alrovoked a fresh volley from his wife, so that he was fain to draw off his forces, and take to the outside of the house--the only side which, in truth, belongs to a henpecked husband.

 Rips sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as much henpecked as his master; for Dame Van Winkle regarded them as panions in idleness, and even looked upon Wolf with an evil eye, as the cause of his masters going so often astray. True it is, in all points of spirit be?tting in honorable dog, he was as ceous an animal as ever scoured the woods--but what ce withstand the evil-doing and all-besetting terrors of a womans tohe moment Wolf ehe house, his crest fell, his tail drooped to the ground, or curled between his legs, he sneaked about with a gallows air, casting many a sidelong gla Dame Van Winkle, and at the least ?ourish of a broomstick or ladle, he would ?y to the door with yelping precipitation.

 Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony rolled on; a tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with stant use. For a long while he used to sole himself, when driven from home, by frequenting a kind of perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village, which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn, designated by a rubid portrait of his Majesty Gee the Third. Here they used to sit in the shade through a long, lazy summers day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling endless, sleepy stories about nothing. But it would have been worth any statesmans moo have heard the profound discussions whietimes took place, when by old neer fell into their hands from some passing traveller. How solemnly they would listen to the tents, as drawled out by Derrick Van Bummel, the saster, a dapper learned little man, who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in the diary; and how sagely they would deliberate upon public events some months after they had taken place.

 The opinions of this junto were pletely trolled by Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn, at the door of which he took his seat from m till night, just moving suf?tly to avoid the sun, and keep in the shade of a large tree; so that the neighbors could tell the hour by his movements as accurately as by a sun-dial. It is true, he was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his pipe incessantly. His adherents, however (for every great man has his adherents), perfectly uood him, and knew how to gather his opinions.

 When any thing that was read or related displeased him, he was observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send forth, frequent, and angry puffs; but when pleased, he would ihe smoke slowly and tranquilly, a it in light and placid clouds, and sometimes, taking the pipe from his mouth, aing the fragrant vapor curl about his nose, would gravely nod his head in token of perfect approbation.

 From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length routed by his termagant wife, who would suddenly break in uporanquillity of the assemblage, and call the members all to nought; nor was that august personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him ht with encing her husband in habits of idleness.

 Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and the clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand, and stroll away into the woods. Here he would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree, and share the tents of his wallet with Wolf, with whom he sympathized as a fellow-sufferer in persecution. "Poor Wolf,"

 he would say, "thy mistress leads thee a dogs life of it; but never mind, my lad, whilst I live thou shalt never want a friend to stand by thee!" Wolf would wag his tail, look wistfully in his masters face, and if dogs feel pity, I verily believe he reciprocated the se with all his heart.

 In a long ramble of the kind, on a ?umnal day, Rip had unsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill mountains. He was after his favorite sport of squirrel-shooting, and the still solitudes had echoed and re-echoed with the reports of his gun. Panting and fatigued, he threw himself, late iernoon, on a green knoll, covered with mountain herbage, that ed the brow of a precipice. From an openiweerees, he could overlook all the lower try for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a distahe lordly Hudson, far, far below him, moving on its silent but majestic course, with the re?e of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom and at last losing itself in the blue highlands.

 Oher side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, lonely, and shagged, the bottom ?lled with fragments from the impending cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the re?ected rays of the setting sun. For some time Rip lay musing on this se; evening was gradually advang; the mountains began to throw their long blue shadows over the valleys; he saw that it would be dark long before he could reach the village; and he heaved a heavy sigh whehought of entering the terrors of Dame Van Winkle.

 As he was about to desd, he heard a voice from a distance hallooing: "Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle!" He looked around, but could see nothing but a crow winging its solitary ?ight across the mountaihought his fancy must have deceived him, and turned again to desd, when he heard the same cry ring through the still evening air, "Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle!"--at the same time Wolf bristled up his back, and giving a low growl, skulked to his masters side, looking fearfully down into the glen. Rip now felt a vague apprehension stealing over him; he looked anxiously in the same dire, and perceived a strange ?gure slowly toiling up the rocks, and bending uhe weight of something he carried on his back. He was surprised to see any human being in this lonely and unfrequented place, but supposing it to be some one of the neighborhood in need of his assistance, he hastened down to yield it.

 On nearer approach, he was still more surprised at the singularity of the strangers appearance. He was a short, square-built old fellow, with thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard. His dress was of the antique Dutch fashion--a cloth jerkin strapped round the waist--several pairs of breeches, the outer one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons down the sides, and bu the knees. He bore on his shoulders a stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip to approad assist him with the load. Though rather shy and distrustful of this new acquaintance, Rip plied with his usual alacrity; and mutually relieving each other, they clambered up a narrow gully, apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. As they asded, Rip every now and then heard long rolling peals, like distant thuhat seemed to issue out of a deep ravine, or rather cleft between lofty rocks, toward which their rugged path ducted. He paused for an instant, but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those trahunder-showers which often take pla the mountais, he proceeded. Passing through the ravihey came to a hollow, like a small amphitheatre, surrounded by perpendicular precipices, over the brinks of which impending trees shot their branches, so that you only caught glimpses of the azure sky, and the bright evening cloud. During the whole time Rip and his panion had labored on in silence; for though the former marvelled greatly what could be the object of carrying a keg of liquor up this wild mountaihere was something strange and inprehensible about the unknown, that inspired awe, and checked familiarity.

 Oering the amphitheatre, new objects of wonder presehemselves. On a level spot in the tre was a pany of odd-looking personages playing at ninepins. They>.</a> were dressed in quaint outlandish fashion; some wore short doublets, others jerkins, with long knives in their belts, and most of them had enormous breeches, of similar style with that of the guides.

 Their visages, too, were peculiar; one had a large head, broad face, and small piggish eyes; the face of another seemed to sist entirely of nose, and was surmounted by a white sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little red cocks tail. They all had beards, of various shapes and colors. There was one who seemed to be the ander. He was a stout old gentleman, with a weather-beaten tenance; he wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, high-ed hat aher, red stogs, and high-heeled shoes, with roses ihe whole group reminded Rip of the ?gures in an old Flemish painting, in the parlor of Dominie Van Schaick, the village parson, and which had been brought over from Holland at the time of the settlement.

 What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that though these folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintaihe gravest faces, the most mysterious silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. Nothing interrupted the stillness of the se but the noise of the balls, which, whehey were rolled, echoed along the mountains like rumbling peals of thunder.

 As Rip and his panion approached them, they suddenly desisted from their play, and stared at him with such a ?xed statue-like gaze, and such strange un..couth, lack-lustre tehat his heart turned within him, and his knees smote together. His panion ied the tents of the keg inte ?agons, and made signs to him to wait upon the pany. He obeyed with fear and trembling; they quaffed the liquor in profound silence, and theuro their game.

 By degrees, Rips awe and apprehension subsided. He eveured, when no eye was ?xed upon him, to taste the beverage which he found had much of the ?avor of excellent Hollands. He was naturally a thirsty soul, and was sooed to repeat the draught. Oaste provoked another; and he reiterated his visits to the ?agon so often, that at length his senses were overpowered, his eyes swam in his head, his head gradually deed, and he fell into a deep sleep.

 On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had ?rst seen the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes--it was a bright sunny m. The birds were hopping and twittering among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure mountain breeze. "Surely," thought Rip, "I have not slept here all night." He recalled the occurrences before he fell asleep. The strange man with the keg of liquor--the mountain ravihe wild retreat among the rocks--the woe-begone party at ninepins--the ?agon--"Oh! that ?agon! that wicked ?agon!"

 thought Rip--"what excuse shall I make to Dame Van Winkle?"

 He looked round for his gun, but in place of the well-oiled fowling-piece, he found an old ?relock lying by him, the barrel encrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the sto-eaten. He now suspected that the grave roysterers of the mountains had put a trick upon him, and, having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared, but he might have strayed away after a squirrel or partridge. He whistled after him and shouted his name, but all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but no dog was to be seen.

 He determio revisit the se of the last evenings gambol, and if he met with any of the party, to demand his dog and gun.

 As he rose to walk, he found himself stiff in the joints, and wanting in his usual activity. "These mountain beds do not agree with me," thought Rip, "and if this frolic, should lay me up with a ?t of the rheumatism, I shall have a blessed time with Dame Van Winkle." With some dif?culty he got down into the glen: he found the gully up which he and his panion had asded the preg evening; but to his astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming down it, leaping from rock to rock, and ?lling the glen with babbling murmurs. He, however, made shift to scramble up its sides, w his toilsome way through thickets of birch, sassafras, and witch-hazel; and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the wild grape vihat twisted their coils and tendrils from tree to tree, and spread a kind of work in his path.

 At length he reached to where the ravine had opehrough the cliffs to the amphitheatre; but no traces of such opening remaihe rocks presented a high imperable wall, over which the torrent came tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad deep basin, black from the shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip was brought to a stand.

 He again called and whistled after his dog; he was only answered by the g of a ?ock of idle crows, sp high in the air about a dry tree that a sunny precipice; and who, secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff at the poor mans perplexities. What was to be dohe m assing away, and Rip felt famished for want of his breakfast. He grieved to give up his dog and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but it would not do to starve among the mountains. He shook his head, shouldered the rusty ?relock, and, with a heart full of trouble and ay, turned his steps homeward.

 As he approached the village, he met a number of people, but none whom he new, whiewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself acquainted with every one in the try round. Their dress, too, was of a different fashion from that to which he was aced. They all stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whehey cast eyes upon him, invariably stroked their s. The stant recurrence of this gesture, induced Rip, involuntarily, to do, the same, when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long!

 He had ered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray beard. The dogs, too, not one of which he reized for an old acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. The very village was altered: it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors--strange faces at the windows--everything was strange. His mind now misgave him; he began to doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched. Surely this was his native village, which he had left but a day before. There stood the Kaatskill mountains--there ran the silver Hudson at a distahere was every hill and dale precisely as it had always been--Rip was sorely perplexed--"That ?agon last night,"

 thought he, "has addled my poor head sadly!"

 It was with some dif?culty that he found the way to his own house, which he approached with silent awe, expeg every moment to hear the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the house goo decay--the roof had fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off the hinges. A half-starved dog, that looked like Wolf, was skulking about it. Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed.--"My very dog," sighed poor Rip, "has fotten me!"

 He ehe house, which, to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had always kept i order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently abahis desolateness overcame all his ubial fears--he called loudly for his wife and children--the lonely chambers rang for a moment with his voice, and then all again was silence.

 He now hurried forth, and hasteo 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 aicoats, and over the door ainted, "The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." Instead of the great tree that used to shelter the quiet little Dutn of yore, there now was reared a tall naked pole, with something oop that looked like a red nightcap, and from it was ?uttering a ?ag, on which was a singular assemblage of stars and stripes--all this was strange and inprehensible. He reized on the sign, however, the ruby face of King Gee, under which he had smoked so many a peaceful pipe, but even this was singularly metamorphosed. The red coat was ged for one of blue and buff, a sword was held in the hand instead of a sceptre, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underh ainted in large characters, "GENERAL WASHINGTON."

 There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but hat Rip recollected. The very character of the people seemed ged. There was a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the aced phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double , and fair long pipe, uttering clouds of tobaoke, instead of idle speeches; or Van Bummel, the saster, doling forth the tents of an a neer.

 In place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow, with his pockets full of handbills, was haranguing, vehemently abhts of citizeions--members of gress--liberty--Bunkers hill--heroes of seventy-six-and<bdi></bdi> other words, which were a perfect Babylonish jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle.

 The appearance of Rip, with his long, grizzled beard, his rusty fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and the army of women and children at his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern politis. They crowded round him, eying him from head to foot, with great curiosity. The orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired, "on which side he voted?" Rip stared in vat stupidity. Another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear, "whether he was Federal or Democrat." Rip was equally at a loss to prehend the question; when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way through the crowd, putting them to the right a with his elbows as he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo, the other resting on his e, his keen eyes and sharp hat peing, as it were, into his very soul, demanded in an austere tone, "What brought him to the ele with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at his heels; and whether he meant to breed a riot in the village?"

 "Alas! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, "I am a poor, quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the King, God bless him!

 Here a general shout burst from the bystanders-"a tory! a tory! a spy! a refugee! hustle him! away with him!" It was with great dif?culty that the self-important man in the cocked hat restored order; and having assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown culprit, what he came there for, and whom he was seeking. The poor man humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but merely came there in search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep about the tavern.

 "Well--who are they?--hem."

 Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, Wheres Nicholas Vedder?

 There was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a thin, piping voice, "Nicholas Vedder? why, he is dead and gohese eighteen years! There was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard that used to tell all about him, but thats rotten and gooo."

 "Wheres Brom Dutcher?"

 "Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he was killed at the st of Stony-Point--others say he was drowned in a squall at the foot of Antonys Nose. I dont know --he never came back again."

 "Wheres Van Bummel, the saster?"

 "He went off to the wars, too; was a great militia general, and is now in gress."

 Rips heart died away, at hearing of these sad ges in his home and friends, and ?nding himself thus alone in the world.

 Every answer puzzled him too, by treating of suormous lapses of time, and of matters which he could not uand:

 war--gress-Stony-Point;--he had no ce to ask after any more friends, but cried out in despair, "Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?"

 "Oh, Rip Van Winkle!" exclaimed two or three. "Oh, to be sure!

 thats Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the tree."

 Rip looked, and beheld a precise terpart of himself as he went up the mountain; apparently as lazy, aainly as ragged. The poor fellow was now pletely founded. He doubted his owy, and whether he was himself or another man. In the midst of his bewilderment, the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his name?

 "God knows!" exclaimed he at his wits end; "Im not myself--Im somebody else--thats me yonder-no--thats somebody else, got into my shoes--I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and theyve ged my gun, and everythings ged, and Im ged, and I t tell whats my name, or who I am!"

 The by-standers began now to look at each other, nod, wink signi?tly, and tap their ?ngers against their foreheads.

 There was a whisper, also, about seg the gun, and keeping the old fellow from doing mischief; at the very suggestion of which, the self-important man with the cocked hat retired with some precipitation. At this critical moment a fresh, ely ressed through the throng to get a peep at the gray-bearded man.

 She had a chubby child in her arms, which, frighte his looks, began to cry. "Hush, Rip," cried she, "hush, you little fool; the old man wont hurt you." The name of the child, the air of the mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened a train of recolles in his mind.

 "What is your name, my good woman?" asked he.

 "Judith Cardenier."

 "And your fathers name?"

 "Ah, poor man, Rip Van Winkle was his name, but its twenty years since he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of since,--his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself, or was carried away by the Indians, nobody tell. I was then but a little girl."

 Rip had but one more question to ask; but he put it with a faltering voice:

 "Wheres your mother?"

 Oh, she too had died but a short time since; she broke a blood-vessel in a ?t of passion at a New-England pedler.

 There was a drop of fort, at least, in this intelligehe ho man could tain himself no longer. He caught his daughter and her child in his arms. "I am your father!" cried he-"Young Rip Van Winkle once-old Rip Van Winkle now--Does nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle!"

 All stood amazed, until an old woman, t out from among the crowd, put her hand to her broeering u in his face for a moment exclaimed, "sure enough! it is Rip Van Wi is himself. Wele home again, old neighbor. Why, where have you beewenty long years?"

 Rips story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him but as one night. The neighbors stared when they heard it; some were seen to wink at each other, and put their tongues in their cheeks; and the self-important man in the cocked hat, who, when the alarm was over, had returo the ?eld, screwed down the ers of his mouth, and shook his head--upon which there was a general shaking of the head throughout the assemblage.

 It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advang up the road. He was a desdant of the historian of that name, who wrote one of the earliest ats of the province. Peter was the most a inhabitant of the village, and well versed in all the wonderful events and traditions of the neighborhood. He recollected Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most satisfaanner.

 He assured the pany that it was a fact, handed down from his aor, the historian, that the Kaatskill mountains had always been haunted by strange beings. That it was af?rmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, the ?rst discoverer of the river and try, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the Half-moon; beited in this way to revisit the ses of his enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city called by his hat his father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in the hollow of the mountain; and that he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like distant peals of thunder.

 To make a long story short, the pany broke up, aur<dfn></dfo the more important s of the ele. Rips daughter took him home to live with her; she had a snug, well-furnished house, and a stout cheery farmer for a husband, whom Rip recollected for one of the urs that used to climb upon his back. As to Rips son and heir, who was the ditto of himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was employed to work on the farm; but evinced an hereditary disposition to attend to any thing else but his business.

 Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon found many of his former ies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time; and preferred making friends among the rising geion, with whom he soon grew into great favor.

 Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at that happy age when a man be idle with impunity, he took his place more on the bench, at the inn door, and was reverenced as one of the patriarchs of the village, and a icle of the old times "before the war." It was some time before he could get into the regular track of gossip, or could be made to prehend the stras that had taken place during his torpor. How that there had been a revolutionary war--that the try had thrown off the yoke of old England--and that, instead of being a subject to his Majesty Gee the Third, he was now a free citizen of the Uates. Rip, in fact, was no politi; the ges of states and empires made but little impression on him; but there was one species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that etticoat gover. Happily, that was at an end; he had got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in and out whenever he pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her name was mentioned, however, he shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and cast up his eyes; which might pass either for a.n expression nation to his fate, or joy at his deliverance.

 He used to tell his story to every strahat arrived at Mr.

 Doolittles hotel. He was observed, at ?rst, to vary on some points every time he told it, which was, doubtless, owing to his having so retly awaked. It at last settled down precisely to the tale I have related, and not a man, woman, or child in the neighborhood, but k by heart. Some alreteo doubt the reality of it, and insisted that Rip had been out of his head, and that this was one point on which he always remained ?ighty. The old Duthabitants, however, almost universally gave it full credit. Even to this day, they never hear a thuorm of a summer afternoon about the Kaatskill, but they say Hendrick Hudson and his crew are at their game of ninepins; and it is a on wish of all henpecked husbands in the neighborhood, when life hangs heavy on their hands, that they might have a quieting draught out of Rip Van Winkles ?agon.

 NOTE.

 The foing tale, one would suspect, had been suggested to Mr.

 Knickerbocker by a little German superstition about the Emperor Frederick der Rothbart and the Kypphauser mountain; the subjoined note, however, which had appeo the tale, shows that it is an absolute faarrated with his usual ?delity.

 "The story of Rip Van Winkle may seem incredible to many, but heless I give it my full belief, for I know the viity of our old Dutch settlements to have been very subjearvellous events and appearances. Indeed, I have heard many straories than this, in the villages along the Hudson; all of which were too well authenticated to admit of a doubt. I have even talked with Rip Van Winkle myself, who, when last I saw him, was a very venerable old man, and so perfectly rational and sistent on every other point, that I think no stious person could refuse to take this into the bargain; nay, I have seen a certi?cate on the subject taken before a try justice, and signed with cross, in the justices own handwriting. The story, therefore, is beyond the possibility of doubt.

 "D. K."

 POSTSCRIPT.

 The following are travelling notes from a memorandum-book of Mr.Knickerbocker:

 The Kaatsberg or Catskill mountains have always been a region full of fable. The Indians sidered them the abode of spirits, who in?uehe weather, spreading sunshine or clouds over the landscape, and sending good or bad hunting seasons. They were ruled by an old squaw spirit, said to be their mother. She dwelt on the highest peak of the Catskills, and had charge of the doors of day and night to open and shut them at the proper hour. She hung up the new moons in the skies, and cut up the old ones into stars. In times ht, if properly propitiated, she would spin light summer clouds out of cobwebs and m dew, ahem off from the crest of the mountain, ?ake after ?ake, like ?akes of carded cotton, to ?oat in the air; until, dissolved by the heat of the sun, they would fall ile showers, causing the grass t, the fruits to ripen, and the to grow an in hour. If displeased, however, she would brew up clouds black as ink, sitting in the midst of them like a bottle-bellied spider in the midst of its web; and when these clouds broke, woe betide the valleys!

 In old times, say the Indian traditions, there was a kind of Manitou or Spirit, who kept about the wildest recesses of the Catskill mountains, and took a mischievous pleasure in wreaking all kind of evils aions upon the red men. Sometimes he would assume the form of a bear, a panther, or a deer, lead the bewildered hunter a weary chase through tangled forests and amed rocks, and then spring off with a loud ho! ho! leaving him aghast on the brink of a beetling precipice ing torrent.

 The favorite abode of this Manitou is still shown. It is a rock or cliff on the lo port of the mountains, and, from the ? vines which clamber about it, and the wild ?owers which abound in its neighborhood, is known by the name of the Garden Roear the foot of it is a small lake, the haunt of the solitary bittern, with water-snakes basking in the sun on the leaves of the pond-lilies which lie on the surface. This place was held i awe by the Indians, insomuch that the boldest hunter would not pursue his game within its prects. Once upon a time, however, a hunter who had lost his eed to the Garden Rock, where he beheld a number of gourds placed in the crotches of trees. One of these he seized and made off with it, but in the hurry of his retreat he let it fall among the rocks, when a great stream gushed forth, which washed him away and swept him down precipices, where he was dished to pieces, and the stream made its way to the Hudson, and tio ?ow to the present day, being the identical stream known by the name of the Kaaterskill.

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