Tues Oct 21st Have been scraping off the paper again
to day and getting ready for the painters
Have been to work some on the sleeves
of my cashmere have sewed part of the
trimming on. Hannah called to ask
me to take care of her babe for her to go
to Boston tomorrow Was in the other part
of the house part of the afternoon
The house continued to be in some upheaval this morning as Evelina scraped more wallpaper off of the parlor walls in order to get “ready for the painters.” Her arms and hands must have ached with the effort. Soon enough she broke away from that task and turned to her sewing, probably with relief. For some time she had been working on a new wool dress and today sewed some trim on. Did she add fringe, or piping, or lace? Or did she add the ribbon she’d been looking for lately?
The bad weather from the weekend had disappeared. According to Old Oliver’s daily chronicle “there was a large fog this morning + after it went of[f] it was verry warm wind brisk from south west Mr Arnold came here to day to sleight the shop at great pond.”
Hannah Lincoln Gilmore, wife of Evelina’s nephew Alson “Augustus” Gilmore, came by to ask her aunt to babysit the next day. Evelina, always a friend to younger women, agreed to watch Hannah’s infant son. It’s worth noting that in order to ask that favor, Hannah had to walk over from the village to physically appear at Evelina’s house. That, or she could have written a note and asked someone to deliver it. There was no phoning, no texting, no emailing, no instant messaging. Instead, there was a knock on the door and a face-to-face request. That’s how it was done in 1851.
Evelina wound up the day with a visit to Sarah Witherell and her houseguest, Susan Orr, in the other part of the house.
evelinaames 
There was no phoning, no texting, no emailing, no instant messaging. Instead, there was a knock on the door and a face-to-face request. That’s how it was done in 1851. nice scribbling….
“Mr Arnold came here to day to sleight the shop at great pond.” Somewhere in the dusty files, I have a picture of that shop, which I acquired from the Easton HS, taken from a distance, which sat at the outlet of Ames-Long-The Great Pond until it was transformed in the last forty years to the modern dwelling there now. Old timers recalled when shovels were stored there, but not its actual operation.
How wonderful that you have any image of that shop.