{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "slug": "rip-van-winkle-pg60976",
  "title": "Rip Van Winkle",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "text": "those\nmen are apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who\nare under the discipline of shrews at home."
    },
    {
      "text": "A curtain-lecture is worth all the sermons in the world\nfor teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering."
    },
    {
      "text": "He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast\nup his eyes, but said nothing."
    },
    {
      "text": "In a\nword, Rip was ready to attend to anybody’s business but his own;\nbut as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found\nit impossible."
    },
    {
      "text": "Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only\nalternative, to escape from the labour of the farm and clamour\nof his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods."
    },
    {
      "text": "He\nwas surprised to see any human being in this lonely and\nunfrequented place; but supposing it to be some one of the\n\nneighbourhood in need of his assistance, he hastened down to\nyield it."
    },
    {
      "text": "What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that these folks\nwere evidently amusing themselves, yet\nthey maintained the gravest faces, the\nmost mysterious silence, and were,\nwithal, the most melancholy party of\npleasure he had ever witnessed."
    },
    {
      "text": "By degrees Rip’s awe and apprehension subsided. He even\nventured, when no eye was fixed upon him, to taste the beverage,\nwhich he found had much of the flavour of excellent Hollands."
    },
    {
      "text": "He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean, well-oiled\nfowling-piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the\nbarrel incrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten."
    },
    {
      "text": "The very\nvillage was altered; it was larger and more populous. There\nwere rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those\nwhich had been his familiar haunts had disappeared."
    },
    {
      "text": "There was a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about\nit, instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity."
    },
    {
      "text": "Rip’s heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his\nhome and friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world."
    },
    {
      "text": "It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter\nVanderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing up the road. He\nwas a descendant of the historian of that name, who wrote one of\nthe earliest accounts of the province."
    },
    {
      "text": "the Kaatskill mountains had always\nbeen haunted by strange beings."
    },
    {
      "text": "He used to tell his story to every stranger that arrived at Mr.\nDoolittle’s hotel. He was observed, at first, to vary on some points\nevery time he told it, which was, doubtless, owing to his having\nso recently awaked. It at last settled down precisely to the tale\nI have related, and not a man, woman, or child in the neighbourhood\nbut knew it by heart."
    },
    {
      "text": "Even to this day they never\nhear a thunder-storm of a\nsummer afternoon about the\nKaatskill, but they say\nHendrick Hudson and his crew are at their game of ninepins;\nand it is a common wish of all hen-pecked husbands in the\nneighbourhood, when life hangs heavy on their hands, that\nthey might have a quieting draught out of Rip Van Winkle’s\nflagon."
    },
    {
      "text": "Attempts have been made to retain hyphenation, punctuation and spelling\nas published in the original publication."
    },
    {
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    }
  ]
}