Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

slowly on to East Liverpool. Here it seemed so hot and confusing I decided to push on to Xelienople (Zelienople, PA) or Butler & spend the night. I started out, but darkness had fallen & I was exhausted, so after having gone 8 or 10 miles, I turned back, and secured a room at the Traveler’s Hotel.; While I was eating a dinner, the radio was going, with Rudy Vallee’s hour as the offering. During the singing of a ballad of the 1920’s someone in the dining room took up the air in the piano, and then went onto improvise in the manner that unschooled rag-time players can do, who can’t “read a note”. I suddenly felt that nothing on earth could be so satisfying as what I was doing now; eating this particular food, listening to just that kind of music, and having the particular river outside in the darkness. I was absolutely content for a brief interval.Aug 20 – after breakfast, I retraced my way to Wellsville for spring water and then came leisurely back along the river, which was beautiful and serene in the thick sun-shot morning mists. An all side the cicadas & grasshoppers were starting their jarring rhythms. I had the pleasure of seeing an amphibian plane take off from the river below.; The trip east of Liverpool thru Beaver & Rochester was without much to note – I was loathe to leave the river country, but curiously, when I did, I felt a relief. Before getting to Xelienople (sic) I made the mistake of picking up a couple of hitch-hikers, boys on return from a vacation in Indiana. They were going to Dubois, and if I stuck to my original plan of following 68 to Kane; which meant I would