Answer:
Rip Van Winkle is a kind and nice man, but he hates to work.
Explanation:
The beginning of the story takes place in the colonial era in what is now the state of New York. There, the farmer Rip Van Winkle lives a peaceful life and is popular with women, children and dogs alike as a simple and good man. However, since he has an “insurmountable aversion to all kinds of hard work”, he often has to endure the wrath of his grumpy wife and takes every opportunity to escape the inconvenience of married life and family life accompanying his dog to roam the woods to fish or hunt. On one of these escapes, in the middle of the forest, he suddenly hears his name and sees a human figure, dressed in old-fashioned Dutch costume and carrying a barrel of brandy on his shoulder. Without a word, he follows the appearance through a gorge to a depression, where, to his great surprise, a whole society of similarly strange figures came together to play skittles. Not a word is exchanged, just the rumbling of the balls disturbs the silence. Wordlessly, Rip is told to pour the players out of the barrel, from which he finally tastes himself before falling into a deep sleep.
When he wakes up, the ghostly company has disappeared, as has his dog; instead of his rifle, Rip only finds a rotting shotgun, and, to his surprise, he finds that his beard seems to have grown a foot overnight. When he returns to his village, he hardly recognizes it and all residents also seem unknown to him and are suspicious of him. Rip's beloved tavern has given way to the Union Hotel, and there it still seems to be the familiar portrait of the English king, but it now bears the words General Washington. When confronted by the curious crowd, the troubled Rip declares that he is a "poor, calm man, a villager and a loyal subject of the king, God bless him!" and is then accused of being a traitor and being a spy.
It is only when an old woman recognizes him that the riddle is solved: Rip didn't sleep one night, but twenty years. In the meantime, his wife has passed away, his children have grown up, and most of all, he overslept the American Revolution and the War of Independence.
