words and expressions.docVIP

They are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers.(7) When the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory.(8) It is a little village, of great antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists, in the early times of the province.(8) He was a descendant of the Van Winkles.(8) He was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and an obedient hen-pecked husband.(8) A termagant wife, may, therefore, in some respects, he considered a tolerable blessing; and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed. Whenever they talked those matters over in their evening gossiping, to lay all the blame on Dame Van Winkle. Not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood. (9) The great error in Rip’s composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. (9) His patrimonial estate had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre. (10) Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound.(10) Rip’s sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as much hen-pecked as his master. (11) What courage can withstand the ever-during and all-besetting terrors of a woman’s tongue? (11) It is true, he was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his pipe incessantly.(13) He would inhale the smoke slowly and tranquilly, and emit it in light and placid clouds.(13) His only alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and the clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods. (13) Rip had unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill Mountain. (13) Panting and fatigued, he threw himself, late in the afternoon, on a green knoll, covered with mountain herbage, that cro