. Stepping stones to literature : a reader for sixth grades . The great error in Rip Van Winkles composition wasan insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. Itcould not be from the want of assiduity or perseverance, forhe would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and as heavyas a Tartars lance, and fish all day without a murmur, andeven though he should not be encouraged by a single nib-ble. He would carry a fowling piece on his shoulder forhours together, trudging through woods and swamps andup hill and down dale to shoot a few squirrels or wildpigeons. He would never refuse to
. Stepping stones to literature : a reader for sixth grades . The great error in Rip Van Winkles composition wasan insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. Itcould not be from the want of assiduity or perseverance, forhe would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and as heavyas a Tartars lance, and fish all day without a murmur, andeven though he should not be encouraged by a single nib-ble. He would carry a fowling piece on his shoulder forhours together, trudging through woods and swamps andup hill and down dale to shoot a few squirrels or wildpigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor evenin the roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all countryfrolics for husking Indian com or building stone fences ;the women of the village, too, used to employ him to runtheir errands and to do such little odd jobs as their less-obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word, Ripwas ready to attend to anybodys business but his own ; butas to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, hefound It impossible. RIP VAN hi OKI a photography by special VAN WINKLEAs IMPERSONATED BT JOSEPH JeFFBRSON. 10 STEPPING STONES TO LITERATURE. 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 wholecountry; everything about it went wrong, and would gowrong in spite of him. His fences were continually fall-ing to pieces; his cow would either go astray or get amongthe cabbages; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fieldthan anywhere else; the rain always made a point of set-ting in just as he had some out-door work to do: so that,though his patrimonial estate had dwindled away under hismanagement acre by acre, until there was little more leftthan a mere patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it wasthe worst-conditioned farm in the neighborhood. His children, too, were as ragged and as wild as if theybelonged to nobody. His son Rip, an urchin begotten inhis own likeness, prom
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidcu3192407496, bookyear1897
