Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

Here were some cattle grazing but as I walked thru them, they paid scant attention to me. I chose to walk along a lane south of Farquhar’s running parallel to the woods, which seemed rather dark and fearsome. As I neared the “Coal Mine” my ear caught the mus­ical clinkle of a cowbell sounding odd by night. I stroke past the Old Mine headed for the Grove. The deep blackness of the woods here unnerved me and when two birds, startled at my footsteps, whirred from a low overhanging branch, I jumped as tho a gun had been fired near me. And again when I was walking thru the silent grove, a rabbit dashed thru the grass and zipped thru a wire fence, making the wires hum I was in a bad way. When I arrive at the edge of a slanting field that skirts Variety Hollow, I was in a sweat. Here I paused to gain control of myself. I was furious to think that I was so unnerved but all at once my fear left me for some unaccountable reason.