The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-01


here and there, though clefts in the
rocks or breaks in the trees, into ravineE,
sunless except in midday and in the
early morning and lighted them up with
a. ray serene" Rip, upon awakening,
found hmselg lying upon the grassy knoll
where he had fallen asleep the night be-
fore Surely" thought he, II cannot
have slept here all night And what will
Dame Van Wrinkle say?" Gradually the
events of the preceding night came back
to hm-the/ Strange man who had called
him by name; the strange company play
ing at bowls-and the key of liquor! "Oh,
that fagon, that wicked fiagon,' groaned
Rip, what excuse shall I make to Dame
Van Winkle?"
Rip looked about him for his gun and
dog. But no dog was to be seen, and in
p,ace of the well-oied fowling piece
which he had the day before there lay
by his side a fire-lock, the barrel in
crusted with rust the stock worm-eaten
and the lock fallen off. Clearly some one
had played a trick upon him while he
slept-probaby his companions of the
night before, in revenge for the amount
of their good Hollands which he con-
sumner. Wolf, he thought, had strayed
away after some rambling squrrel-Wolf,
he knew, never would desert him. He at
tempted to rise ond found that he could
do so only with the greatest difficulty.
His bones ached and every muscle of his
body was stiff and rheumatic.
That he thought, came of sleeping out
of doors all night upon the grass wet
with dew. He took the rusty old firelock
in his hand and whistled after Wolf. No
Wolf responded, though he whistled again
and again. He shouted But only the
mountain echoes responded to his wnis-
ties and his shouts. Rip now determined
to revisit the scene of his last night S
gambols and to demand of the strange
company into which he had fallen the
return of his dog and his gun. for ne
made no doubt but they had stolen VOL
along with his fowling piece.
1t was with some difficulty that Rip
made his descent into the glen below,
thinking as he went: ''These mountain
beds surely do not agree with me. and
| ir am laid up with an attack of rheuma-
tism a precious time 1 shall have with
Dam Van Wrinkle" Slowly and pain
fully he made his way to the bottom Of
the glen He looked in vain for the dry
gully up which he had the night before
helped the stranger carry the key of Hol-
| lands. Where it had been was now a
mountain stream dashing down with
sound and foam Rips establishment was
great. but 1t only made him more thar
ever determined to revisit the bowling
glen and learn the cause of all that had
happened Somehow he managed &c
scramble UP the side of the torrent, max
ing his way with great toll and difficulty
through the thickets Of birch, witch haze
and sassafras which grew along it's sides
The way was lone and tolsome, but Rir
was aroused.
At length he reached the spot where the
ravine had opened through cleft in tht
rocks into the little amphitheatre where
the weird strangers had played at nine
pins. and here Rip stod dazed and looked
about him. Where the night before there
ihad been an opening in the rocks there
was now presented a smooth, perpen.
dicular wall, over which the mountain
stream came tumbling in waterfall into
a pool. a sheet of feathery foam. into q
broad, deep basin whose waters wor'
black from the shadows of the surround
ing forests. Rip, when he had recovered
partially from the natural confusion 81
mind which these changes In nature
we're calculated to produce, again begar
calling and whistling for his dog Their,
was no answer except the cawing of {
flock of crows who, wheeling about tn