A.M. Joe McGovern, a sailor lad from Boston whom Martha had met this summer, arrives in Buffalo and comes out.
Evening Mart & her friend to Niagara Falls; Just before sundown all of us to Pipe Creek, as it seemed the only time it would be for Mary Alice to see it.
Arrive after sundown. Down into ravine, altho it is already growing dark. Very difficult to see – mystery. Art & C on ahead, while B & M.A. wait. I go on to get the other two. All return. Very dark. Going under a group of hemlocks. The shade so black & intense as to be almost tangible. I had the feeling of being in a dream, or as if we were all but spirits wandering aimlessly in some half world, unable to see each other.
Coming up the bank, the “big dipper” just above the hill’s edge, as if balanced on it. When we came up into the open fields it was full night, the sky brilliant with stars, the Milky Way visible in a way it never is in town.
Charles E. Burchfield, September 26, 1945