es his
chin._]--Why, I'm changed too; why, my beard's as long as a goat's.

SETH.

[_Coming down._] Look here, old sucker, I guess you had better go home
and get shaved.

RIP.

My old woman will shave me when I gets home! Home, where is my home? I
went to the place where it used to was, and it wasn't dere. Do you live
in Catskill?

SETH.

Well, I rather guess I dus--

RIP.

Do you know where I live?

SETH.

Well, to look at you, I should think you didn't live nowhere in
particular, but stayed round in spots.

RIP.

You live in Catskill?

SETH.

Certain.

RIP.

You don't know dat I belong here?

SETH.

No, I'm darned if I do. I should say you belonged to Noah's ark---

RIP.

Did you never hear in Catskill of one Rip Van Winkle?

SETH.

What, Rip Van Winkle, the greatest rum-sucker in the country?

RIP.

Dat is a fact--dat is him! ha! ha! now we shall see.

SETH.

Oh, yes, I've heard of him; the old coon's been dead these twenty years.

RIP.

Den I am dead and dat is a fact. Well, poor Rip is dead. I'm sorry for
dat.--Rip was a goot fellow.

SETH.

I wish there was a whole grist just like him in Catskill. Why, they say
he could drink rum enough in one day to swim in.

RIP.

Don't talk so much about rum; you makes me so dry as never was.

SETH.

Hold on a spell then, and I'll fetch you something to wet your whistle.
[_Exit into house._

RIP.

Why, here is another change! dis was Rory's house last night, [SETH
_re-enters._] mit de sign of George the Third.

SETH.

[The alteration of my sign is no bad sign for the country, I
reckon.](147)

RIP.

[_Reading._] "George Washington,"--who is he? [I remember a shoot of dat
name, dat served under Braddock, before I went to sleep.

SETH.

[_Giving him jug._] Well, if you've been asleep I guess he ar'n't: his
enemies always found him wide awake and kicking; and that shoot, as you
call him, has planted the tree of liberty so everlasting tight in
Yankeeland, that all the kingdoms of the earth can't root it out.](148)

RIP.

Well, here is General Washington's goot health, and his family's goot
health, ant may dey all live long ant prosper. So poor Rip Van Winkle is
dead, eh? [Now comes de poser;](149) if Rip is dead, [what has become of
his old woman?](150)

SETH.

She busted a blood-vessel swearing at a Yankee pedlar, and has gone to