Friday 31st Have taken up the bedroom and stair carpets
and Bridget has cleaned the front entry
I have been very busy all day about the house
Mrs Hubbell, Ames, and Mrs S Ames have been
to Sharon Mrs Witherell called at Mrs Swains
this afternoon but I was so busy that I could
not accompany her. Passed the evening in
the other part of the house. Mr Scott painting
Mr Hawkins lectured at the methodist meeting house
Evelina’s autumn version of spring cleaning continued today as she tackled the upstairs carpets. Mr. Scott was still in the house, painting, and servant Bridget O’Neill cleaned the front entry which had also undergone repainting. “Very busy all day about the house,” Evelina evidently didn’t even venture out of doors.
Others did go outside. Sarah Ames Witherell paid a call on new mother Ann Swain, while Sarah Ames, Almira Ames and Mrs. Hubbel rode to nearby Sharon. Old Oliver noted in his journal that “this was a fair day + some cooler wind north west +considerable of it.”
Some miles northward, in Concord, Henry David Thoreau noted in his journal that “The wild apples are now getting palatable. I find a few left on distant trees, that the farmer thinks it not worth his while to gather. He thinks that he has better in his barrels, but he is mistaken, unless he has a walker’s appetite and imagination, neither of which can he have.”** Two farmers in Evelina’s life, her father-in-law, Old Oliver, and her brother, Alson Gilmore, might take exception to Thoreau’s characterization of them as men without imagination.
In the evening, a Mr. Hawkins gave a lecture at the Methodist meeting house, right in the village.
* Barrel of apples, http://nbarnett2.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/the-importance-of-good-packing/
**Henry David Thoreau, Journal, http://hdt.typepad.com/henrys_blog/2004/10/october_31_1851.ht