love so! Oh, bless your heart, how you have grown since last night as you was a little girl. ALICE. [_Embracing him._] Oh, my poor dear brother. RIP. Yes, I tink I am your broder ’cos you is my sister. KNICKERBOCKER _returns._ ALICE. And here is my husband. RIP. He is a much deal uglier, dan he used to vas before. KNICKERBOCKER. [_Embracing him._] My blessed brother-in-law. VEDDER. Ah! and now you have come back, I suppose you want your wife! RIP. No, I’ll be tam if I do! You’ve got her, and you keep her—I von’t never have her no more. VEDDER. I sha’n’t have her—I have done with her, and glad to be rid of her. [_Exit._ RIP. Ha, ha! Then my poor frau is a vidder, with two husbands, an’ she ain’t got none at all. HERMAN. It is Rip Van Winkle, and alive! RIP. Yes, and to the best of my belief, I have not never been dead at all. HERMAN. And I am left to poverty and despair. [_Exit._ RIP. And serve you right too—I’m stewed fun dat is fact. [_Looking round._] But I had a leetle boy, last night—vhere is my young baby boy, my leetle Rip? ALICE. I saw him just now—oh, here he is. _Enter, young Rip Van Winkle, a very tall young man._ RIP. Is dat my leetle baby boy? How he is grown since last night. Come here, you young Rip. I am your fader. Vell, he is much like me—he is a beautiful leetle boy. KNICKERBOCKER. But tell us, Rip, where have you hid yourself for the last twenty years? RIP. Ech woll! ech woll! Vhen I take mine glass, I vill tell mine strange story, and drink the health of mine friends—and, ladies and gentlemen, I will drink to your good hells and your future families, and may you all—and may Rip Van Winkle too—live long and brosber. _Curtain._ SCENE IV. KNICKERBOCKER’S _House as before._ KNICKERBOCKER, ALICE _and_ LORRENNA _enter._ KNICKERBOCKER. Give me joy, dears; I’m elected unanimously—elected a member of the Legislature. ALICE. Why, spouse! KNICKERBOCKER. Mr. Knickerbocker, if you please, my dear; damme! I’m so happy I could fly to the moon, jump over a steeple, dance a new fandango on stilts. [_Dances._] Fal, lal, la. _Enter_ HERMAN. KNICKERBOCKER. Well, sir, what the devil do you want? HERMAN. I came to claim this lady’s fortune or her hand. ALICE. Knock him down, spouse. KNICKERBOCKER. Mr. Knickerbocker, my dear. ALICE. Oh, bother! I know if he comes near my niece, woman as I am, I’ll scratch his eyes out. HERMAN. Mr. Knickerbocker. KNICKERBOCKER. The honourable member from —— County, if you please. HERMAN.