This delightful Washington Irving tale, based upon legends and folklore of his day, follows the loveable but lazy Rip Van Winkle's escape from his constantly nagging wife into the peaceful hills of the Catskill mountains with his squirrel gun and his loyal dog, Wolf.

There, he encounters a strangely attired gentleman who gets his help in carrying a huge vessel filled with liquor to a cavernous hideaway in the mountainside. Inside, a group of equally strange and morose men play ninepins as they quaff the liquor.

After Van Winkle drinks to excess on the sly, he stumbles his way back to the woods and falls into a deep sleep beneath a tree. He awakens to find it is 20 years later - and the American Revolution has occured as he slept!