The legend of Rip Van Winkle and his twenty years of sleep in the spirit-infested Kaatskill Mountains is one of the most entertaining of the works of Washington Irving. On the return to his native place, Rip Van Winkle's explanation of his lengthy absence was received, not altogether unreasonably, with incredulity. The oldest inhabitant, however, Peter Vanderdonk, a man well versed in all the traditions of the neighbourhood, corroborated the story, Rip Van Winkle was allowed to settle down in peace, and we are told that "he soon found many of his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time." |