Modern Classic Story: The Legend of Wencker

The following is a modern classic story: The Legend of Wencker, arranged for everyone. I hope you like it!

Anyone who has been to the Hudson River will remember the Catskill Mountain. It is a branch of the huge Appalachian Mountains. It stands on the west side of the Hudson River and overlooks the surrounding mountain villages proudly. The alternation of seasons and the change of climate-in fact, every hour of the day-will make the colors of mountains change wonderfully. Housewives from far and near regard this change as a perfect barometer.

On sunny days, the mountains are blue and purple. At night, their lines appear clearly in the clear sky. However, sometimes, although there are no clouds around Wan Li, there is a thick layer of gray fog on their peaks, which shines in the last afterglow of the sunset, just like the light wheel on the angel's head.

Under the hills of this fairytale world, passers-by will see a faint smoke rising from a village. The wooden roof of the village swayed in the Woods. The blue on the mountain has turned into lush green here. This is an ancient mountain village. This is the place where Dutch colonists lived in this province in the early days. Peter Christopher Santer, who enforced the law impartially at that time-may he rest in peace! -just came to power soon. The existing houses in the village where the earliest colonists lived are still intact, but it doesn't seem to last long. The house is made of yellow Dutch brick, with lattice windows, a triangular projection on the front and a weather vane on the roof.

In this mountain village, in such a house, many years ago-when this country was still a province of England-there lived a simple and easy-going man named Lubo Van Winkle. His ancestor, the famous Van Winkle, once besieged the Christian fortress with local officials in the heroic era of Peter Stouff Santer. However, Lu Bo rarely has the martial spirit of his ancestors. I said that Lu Bo is a simple and easy-going person. Besides, he is a good neighbor and an obedient husband who is afraid of his wife. To tell the truth, it is because I am afraid of my wife that I am very docile and deeply loved by everyone. Because as long as a man is strictly controlled by a bitch at home, he must be respectful, kind and humble outside. For them, the wife's reprimand is better than all the preaching in the world to persuade people to endure pain. Therefore, it is a blessing to have a fierce wife. If this is true, then Rupert Van Winkle is a blessing in disguise.

Needless to say, all the women in the mountain village love him very much. In the evening, when women talk about Lupo's family quarrels, as lovely women always do, they always protect Lupo and criticize Mrs. Van Winkle. As soon as he appeared, the children in the village cheered him happily. He plays with children, makes toys for them, teaches them to fly kites and play billiards, and tells them long stories about ghosts, witches and Indians. Whenever he appears in the village, there are always a group of children around him, some hanging on his clothes and some crawling on his back. They teased him without restraint. No dog in the village will bark at him.

The shortcoming of Lubo's character is that he shows great disgust at all jobs that can make money. This is not because he is not long enough, nor because he is not diligent enough. He can sit on a wet stone all day without saying a word, holding a fishing rod as long and heavy as a Tatar's pike, and the fish doesn't even touch the bait on the fishing rod. In order to shoot a few pigeons or squirrels, he would trudge through the Woods with a shotgun on his back, wade through swamps, climb mountains and climb mountains. As long as others beg him, he will never refuse to help others, even the most clumsy work.

As long as there are happy scenes in the village, such as peeling corn and building stone walls, he always takes the lead.

Women in the village often send him to run errands for them, or do chores for them that their husbands despise. In a word, Lubo is always ready to help others, but never does anything for himself. He can't do housework by himself, nor can he do farm work in the fields.

In fact, he claimed that his farmland was hopeless. This is the worst piece of land in the village. Whether he likes it or not, everything in his field is screwed up. And the situation will continue to deteriorate.

Fences fell down one by one. The cow has either been lost or gone to Brighton's field. Weeds in his field grow faster than anywhere else. Whenever he wants to do some work outside, it rains. Under his management, the farmland handed down by his father was reduced by one mu, until finally only a small piece of land for growing corn and potatoes was left, which was still the worst managed in the village.

His children are also in rags, as if they have no parents to take care of them. His son has the same name as him, also called Lu Bo. He looks exactly like his father, and his son seems to have inherited his father's habit of wearing rags. He always follows his mother like a pony. He was wearing a pair of wide-leg breeches thrown away by Lu Bo, and one hand was struggling to carry the trousers, looking like a woman dragging a skirt on a rainy day.

However, Lupo Van Winkle is one of the happiest people in the world. He is very stupid, and he is naturally eager for comfort and happy-go-lucky. He eats white bread when he eats white bread and black bread when he eats black bread. He can make do with anything as long as he is too lazy to think and doesn't want to. He would rather starve for a penny than work for a pound. If you let his own personality, he will wander happily; But his wife kept scolding him for being idle and doing nothing, saying that he was driving the whole family to the wall.

In the morning, at noon and at night, my wife's tongue nagged endlessly. Whenever Lubo talks or works, his wife always curses. Rupert has only one way to deal with his wife's reprimand, and it has become his habit because he often uses this trick. He shrugged, shook his head, looked up and said nothing. However, this practice often causes his wife to launch a new curse, so he has to retreat and flee to the outside-this is the way out for a husband who is afraid of his wife.

Lupo's follower at home is his dog wolf. Wolf is as afraid of housewives as his master. Because Mrs. Van Winkle regards them as a lazy couple. She always looked at Wolff viciously and thought that Wolff was the chief culprit who often led his master astray. Seriously, as far as the loyal dog's character is concerned, Wolff can be said to be unparalleled in picking up prey in the Woods.

As the years of marriage passed, the life of Rupert Van Winkle got worse every year. The fiery temper of a tigress-like wife will not decrease with age; Due to frequent use, her tongue became more and more bitter. For a time, after being kicked out of the house, Rupert often hung out with a group of guys in the village who killed their leisure time. They often sit on benches in front of hotels. There is a portrait of His Majesty King George III in front of the hotel, with George's red face on it. These guys sat lazily in the shade of a big tree all summer, listlessly gossiping about the village or telling endless sleepy stories. However, sometimes they accidentally get an old newspaper from passers-by, and they will talk about world affairs seriously.

Politicians deserve to spend money to listen to their discussions. Look! They listened attentively to Derek Van Booman, a village teacher, reading the newspaper word by word. Derek is short, smart and knowledgeable.

He will never be intimidated by any big word in the dictionary! Look! They are so seemingly sages to discuss what happened in the world a few months ago!

This group of people's views are completely influenced by Nicholas Van Duel. He is a veteran of the village and the owner of the hotel. He sat in front of the hotel from morning till night, moving with the sun and from time to time, making himself sit in the shade forever. Therefore, people in the village can observe the sun and the day according to his position. Tell the time accurately. Yes, he didn't talk all day, just smoked a pipe. His followers (because every great man has followers) know him very well and know how to judge his views. If what he reads or narrates makes him unhappy, people can see him smoking his pipe violently and then smoking angrily, hastily and continuously. If he is happy, he smokes slowly and calmly, spitting out faint and calm smoke. Sometimes, he took out his pipe from his mouth, let the fragrant smoke linger on his nose and nodded solemnly to show his approval.

Even in such a fortress, the unfortunate Rupert finally failed to resist his wife's attack. The mother tiger suddenly fell from the sky, breaking people's peace. She called these guys assholes, and even the venerable Nicholas Van Duel could not escape the lion's roar. He was accused of encouraging her husband to be lazy.

Poor Lupo was finally pushed to the point of near despair. His way to get rid of farm work and his wife's scolding is to take a shotgun and walk in the Woods. Sometimes he sits by the root of a tree and shares the contents of his bag with Wolff. He regards Wolff as a brother in trouble.

"Poor wolf," he would say, "your housewife makes you live like a pig and a dog. But, son, never mind. As long as I live for one day, you will never lack friends. "

The wolf wagged his tail and looked at his master's face reluctantly. If a dog knows compassion, I really believe that it is repaying its master's kindness wholeheartedly.

On a beautiful autumn day, after a long journey, Lupo climbed the Catskill Mountain. He shoots squirrels all the way, which is his favorite sport. His gunfire rang out from time to time around the quiet. Towards dusk, sleepy and hungry, he fell on a mound covered with green grass, which extended to the edge of the cliff. Through the cracks in the trees, he could see the dense forest stretching for miles at the foot of the mountain. In the distance, he saw the magnificent Hudson River flowing quietly, sometimes the reflection of colorful clouds flashed in the river, and sometimes the sails moved slowly. The sail seems to sleep on the white and smooth chest of the mother river of the Hudson River and gradually disappear into the blue mountains.

On the other side of the cliff, he saw a deep canyon. There are grotesque rocks, and the foot of the canyon is full of stones falling from the cliff. This is where the sun can't shine. Lupo lay thoughtfully on the mound for a while. When night falls, the long dark shadows of the mountains hang over the whole valley. Rupert knew that if he returned to the mountain village, it would be dark. He couldn't help sighing deeply at the thought of Mrs. Van Winkle's anger.

When he was about to go down the mountain, he heard a voice calling in the distance:

"Lubber van winkle! Lupo van winkle! "

He looked around and saw a lonely crow flying over the hill. He thought he must have been distracted and started going down the mountain again. Suddenly he heard the same cry again, piercing the quiet night sky.

"Lubber van winkle! Lupo van winkle! "

At this moment, the wolf's hair suddenly stood on end. He let out a deep cry, climbed to his master's side and looked at the canyon in fear. Lubber also vaguely afraid. He looked in the same direction. He saw a strange man slowly climbing up the mountain with heavy things on his back. Seeing people in this deserted place surprised him greatly. But he thought maybe the people in the neighboring village needed his help, so he hurried down the mountain.

When he approached, the strange appearance of the stranger surprised him even more. The stranger's owner is a short but sturdy old man with unkempt hair and a gray beard. He is wearing an old Dutch costume-a cloth coat tightly around his waist-and some trousers. The outermost pair of trousers is very big, with rows of buttons on both sides and a bulge at the knee. He has a barrel on his shoulder, which seems to be full of wine; He waved to Lupo and asked him for help. Lu Bo was a little shy and suspicious when he met strangers, but as usual, he quickly agreed to help him. The two of them took turns carrying buckets and climbed up the ravine.

This gully is obviously a dry river bed in the mountains. When they climbed the mountain, Rupert heard a rumbling sound, like thunder in the distance. The sound seems to come from deep valleys, or rather, from cracks in towering rocks. They walked along the rugged mountain road to the direction of the sound. Lupo thought that the sound just now was the fleeting thunder and rain that are common in the mountains. Through the canyon, they came to a valley.

This valley is in the shape of an amphitheater in ancient Rome. Surrounded by vertical cliffs. The edge of the cliff is covered with drooping trees. Their thick branches and leaves covered the sky. So you can only occasionally catch a glimpse of the blue sky and clouds in the clear sky at night. Rupert and his companions walked silently without saying a word, because although Rupert was puzzled by the move of carrying a bucket into the barren mountain, there was something strange and mysterious about this stranger that made Rupert feel awe and dared not chat with him casually.

They walked into a valley like an amphitheater and something strange appeared in front of them. There are some strange-looking people playing ninepins on the flat ground in the center of the theater. They are wearing strange foreign clothes. Some people wear tops, some people wear sleeveless tops, and most people wear loose pants like Lu Bo's fellow travelers. Their faces are also very special. There is a man with a big beard, a wide face and small squints. The other person seems to have only a big nose on his face, wearing a white conical hat with a tiny cock tail feather in it. Each of them has beards of various shapes and colors. One of them seems to be a leader. He is a sturdy old gentleman with a weather-beaten face. He wore a tight jacket, a wide belt around his waist, a short knife, a feather floating on his hat, red socks and high heels on his feet, and roses in his shoes. These people remind Lupo of an old portrait of a Flemish painting hanging in the living room of Dominique van Schaick, a country priest. That painting was brought from Holland when the colony was established.

Lupo was surprised that although these people were very entertaining, they kept solemn and mysterious silence. They are the most melancholy players he has never seen. No sound broke the silence around, only the rumble of the ball. They sound like thunder when they roll.

When Lubo and his fellow travelers approached them, they suddenly stopped playing. Their eyes did not move, staring at Lupo like statues. Their eyes and strange, disgraceful facial expressions made Liu Bo tremble all over and his feet kept shaking. At the moment, his traveling companion poured the wine from the barrel into the hip flask, and motioned for Rupert to show it to the people present. Lupo did it trembling.

These strange people gulped down the wine without saying a word. Then I went back to play ninepins.

Lupo's fear faded away. He even dares to drink when no one is paying attention to him. He found that this wine has a good taste of Dutch wine. He is a natural alcoholic, so he can't help drinking again and again. He took wine from the hip flask one by one, and soon he couldn't support it. He felt very dizzy, his head slowly drooped and he fell asleep.

When he woke up, he found himself still on the mound where he met the strange old man. He rubbed his eyes-it was a sunny morning. Birds are jumping and singing in the bushes; In the refreshing mountain wind, the eagle flies high.

"Why," thought Lupo, "I don't want to sleep here all night."

He recalled what happened before others went to bed-a stranger carrying a barrel-a secluded place in the valley-a sad little old man playing ninepins-a big hip flask. "ah! Big hip flask! That evil hip flask! " Lupo said, "What excuse can I find to explain to Mrs. Van Winkle?"

He looked for his shotgun. But what he saw beside him was an old-fashioned flintlock gun. The barrel of the gun was covered with rust, the bolt was broken into pieces, and the butt of the gun was eaten by insects. He now suspects that serious players in the mountains played a joke on him, got him drunk and stole his gun. Wolf is gone; It may have caught a squirrel or grouse. He whistled for Wolff to come back, but it was useless. The mountain echoed with his whistle and cry, but there was no sign of Wolff.

He decided to go to the place where players gathered last night; If he meets any of them, he will ask them for his dog and gun back. When he stood up, he felt stiff and not as flexible as usual.

"Is it appropriate to sleep in the mountains?" Lupo thought. "If this play makes me get rheumatism and stay in bed, Mrs. Van Winkle will not spare me."

He labored down the valley, and later found the canyon he had walked with his traveling companion the night before. But, unexpectedly, the canyon is roaring with the rapids rushing down from the mountain. The rushing water jumped from one rock to another, and there was a rumbling roar under the canyon. He managed to climb the ravine, trudged among the trees, and occasionally tripped over wild vines entangled in the trees.

Finally, he came to the canyon last night. However, the rocks there blocked the way. There were no cracks between the cliffs last night. Only a mountain torrent poured down from the top of the mountain, splashing and bottomless, surrounded by dark Woods. Poor lupo was stunned. He called his dog again and whistled.

What answered him was the crow hovering in a dead tree. The dead tree stands upright as if laughing at the plight of the poor. What shall we do? The morning is almost over. Lupo feels hungry because he didn't have breakfast. He was so sad about losing his dog and gun that he dared not go back to see his wife. But it's no use starving in the mountains. He shook his head, shouldered a rusty flintlock and walked home with a heavy heart.

When he was near the village, he met a group of people, but he didn't know any of them. This situation surprised him a little, because he thought he knew everyone in the village. Their clothes are also different from what he usually sees. They also looked at Lupo in surprise and touched their chins at the same time. They kept touching their chins, which made Lupo unconsciously touch his chin. This shocked him because he found that his beard was actually a foot long.

Now he has come outside the village. A group of children followed him, shouting at his gray beard. He didn't know any dogs in the village and barked at him. The whole village has changed-bigger and more people. There are many houses that he has never seen, and many houses that he is familiar with are gone. There are names he doesn't know on the door, faces he doesn't know in the window, and everything is strange to him. He doesn't believe in himself now and doubts whether he and everything around him are possessed.

He is convinced that this is his village; He just left here yesterday. There is the Catskill Mountain and the silver Hudson River in the distance. Every mountain and canyon is the same as before. Lubo really scratched his head.

"The wine last night," he thought, "completely confused me!"

It took him some effort to find his way home.

He walked forward step by step, afraid to say a word, afraid to hear Mrs. Van Winkle scream every minute. He saw the house collapsed, the windows were destroyed and the doors fell off the hinges. A hungry dog, a bit like a wolf, wandered around the collapsed house. He called Wolff's name, but the dog howled, bared its teeth and walked away. This is really a blow to Lu Bo.

"My dog," sighed Rupert, "also forgot to mourn me!"

He walked into the house. To tell the truth, Mrs. Van Winkle always keeps her house tidy. Now the house is empty, sad and cool, and seems to have been abandoned. In a bleak situation, he forgot that he was a husband who was afraid of his wife. He called out to his wife and children. His cries echoed in the empty room, and soon everything was calm again. He rushed out of the house at once and ran to his usual hotel. But the hotel is gone. A huge curved wooden structure occupies the position of the hotel. There are big windows on the wall, some windows are broken, and people are stuffing worn-out hats and women's petticoats. The door of the building says "Jonathan Du Lide American Hotel".

On the old site of the big tree covered by the quiet Dutch hotel, there is now a bare flagpole with a flag flying on it and a bunch of strange stars and stripes on it.

Lupo felt strange and incomprehensible. He still saw King George's red face on the card outside the store; He used to smoke many cigarettes quietly on this red face. But now even this has changed.

The king's red coat became a blue and yellow coat; The scepter in his hand became a command knife, wearing a triangular hat on his head, and the words "General Washington" were written in capital letters below.

As usual, there was a group of people in front of the hotel, but Lu Bo didn't know anyone. People's personality seems to have changed. Noisy debates have replaced the slow pace and sleepy silence of the past. He tried to find the learned Nicholas Van Duel, trying to find his broad head, double chin, long pipe, full of smoke instead of saying many boring words. He also wants to find a teacher who reads old newspapers word for word. But he didn't find anyone.

They were replaced by a thin and bad-tempered guy. His pockets are full of leaflets, and he is talking loudly about civil rights, elections, parliamentarians, freedom, Bankhill, heroes of 1776 and so on. This pile of languages is like Babylonian gibberish, and Van Winkle can't understand a word.

Lubo's appearance, his long gray beard, rusty shotgun, tattered clothes and a group of women and children who followed him quickly attracted the attention of hotel politicians. They surrounded him and looked at him from head to toe. The speaker surrounded him, pulled him aside and asked him:

"Who did you vote for?"

Lupo looked at the speaker in surprise. Another short but busy man grabbed his arm, stood on tiptoe and whispered in his ear:

"Are you a federalist or a Democrat?"

Lupo also knows nothing about his problem. At this time, a sophisticated and self-righteous old gentleman with a pointed triangular hat pushed his way through the crowd and stood in front of Van Winkle. One hand is inserted at the waist, and the other hand is holding a crutch; His sharp eyes and sharp corners on his hat seemed to hurt Lupo's soul. He asked seriously:

He has nothing to do at home, and has reached the happy age of doing nothing without guilt. He sat on the bench outside the hotel again. People in the village respect him and regard him as one of the elders in the village, which is a living history book of the days before the war. It took him a long time to keep up with the villagers' conversation and understand all kinds of strange things during his daze-how the revolutionary war happened-how the United States got rid of the shackles of Britain-how he changed from a subject of His Majesty George III to a free citizen of the United States. Seriously, Lupo is not a politician. Changes in the country and empire have no influence on him; But he has long groaned under the tyranny-under the jurisdiction of his wife. Now this rule is over-he finally has a head, gets rid of the shackles of marriage, can come and go freely, and no longer has to be afraid of Mrs. Van Winkle's repression. When people mention his wife's name, he always shakes his head, shrugs his shoulders and raises his eyes-this can be interpreted as resignation, or that he is happy with his liberation.

He always tells his story to every stranger who comes to Mr Du Lide's restaurant. First of all, people notice that every time he tells a story, he always changes some plots-no doubt, this is because he just woke up.

In the end, the story becomes what I said above. All the men, women and children in the village can recite the story. Some people always doubt the truth of the story. They said Lupo was crazy. But the elderly among Dutch residents almost unanimously said that this story did happen. Even today, when they hear the thunder of Catskill Mountain in summer afternoon, they always say that Huntrick and his sailors are playing ninepins again. When husbands who are afraid of their wives near the mountain village feel that life is hard, they always want to try the wine that makes Rupert Van Winkle fall asleep.