Kids Story Books : Rip Van Winkle Full Story In English

Rip Van Winkle Kids Story

Before You Read

How do you feel when you oversleep? Do you feel energetic or even more tired?

Read the story of Rip Van Winkle and learn what sleeping for a long time can do to a person.

Some two hundred years ago, there lived

a simple and good man. His name was

Rip Van Winkle. He was very lazy and this

troubled his wife a lot. She scolded him for his laziness, but he would just go away into the mountains to hide from her.

One day, his wife became very angry at him. She was fed up of his laziness. She scolded him harshly. So, Rip and his dog, Wolf, got out of the house for a while. As they were walking along, they came across a very high mountain. After climbing it, they were tired, so they lay down on the green grass to rest.

They fell asleep soon after.

He was woken up by a voice calling, "Rip Van Winkled! Rip Van Winkle! Come here,

Come and help me.

He turned around and saw a short old man. He was carrying a heavy barrel on his

shoulder. Rip agreed to carry the barrel to a valley in the mountains.

There he found a group of men playing a game.

"They look strange!"thought Rip. "They

have short legs and long beards! And their clothes are strange, too. Rip felt a little afraid of them.

Everything had changed. The people stared at him and the dogs began to bark. He looked around, but could not find a single face he knew.

"He looks funny," the children said.

"He has a dirty, grey beard and his clothes are torn, a young man added.

Rip went towards his house, but it wasn't there. He asked the people around about the family that lived there. No one could tell him anything.

Just then, a young woman peeped in through the crowd.

Rip looked at her. She looked so much like his wife!

"What is your name?" he asked her.

"Judith," she replied.

"What is your father's name?

"Ah, poor man!" she said with tears in her eyes. "His name is Rip Van Winkle. Twenty years ago, he went away from home with his gun and his dog. He never came back."

"Oh, my dear, I'm your father!" cried a delighted Rip. He hugged his daughter.

Judith could not believe her eyes. She had never thought of meeting him again.

Everyone else was amazed, too. They welcomed him warmly and asked him, "Where have you been these twenty long years?"

Only Rip knew the answer. He had been asleep in the mountains for twenty years!