Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

Lucy Calvin- Tall, gaunt, ungainly, round shouldered, eyes always the appearance of weeping – The smile is always unnatural or forced and is always accompanied by a frown; –She is never in style – while other girls display their legs with knee-skirts she flutters around in a wrapper-like dress that drags in the dust – unloved, unsought, she daily makes herself more & more unlovable & unseekable –The homestead is of the kind that scatters itself around in a dilapidated confusion – inside the house one room is painted a sort of washed out sky blue, while the kitchen adjoining is a dark pink – Mrs. Calvin is built like the daughter – (in fact the mother & father seem like offshoots of the daughter as tho the daughter were the original grotesque & the others modified copies) – Mrs. Calvin’s head is small, the face yellow & minutely but evenly wrinkled all over giving her the appearance of perpetually smiling a cracked smile – she has small bright black eyes that remind one of a cricket.The road that leads to their home goes past a dried up frog pond – in July the air is filled with the odor of decaying tadpoles –