1852
Monday June 28th Have been about the house at
work most of the day Swept most of the
house except the parlour. washed the
front stairs and have the house in pretty
good order Mrs S Ames came in with her
work and stoped an hour or two something
unusual for her Hannah came to spend
the evening but I had gone into Edwins and
she went in to see Mrs Witherell
Either Evelina felt better this morning, or her habit of working simply wouldn’t let her be idle. In the course of the morning, she swept most of the rooms and washed the stairs while her servant – Hannah Murphy, most likely- did the laundry and prepared the midday dinner. In the afternoon, Evelina at last sat down. Sarah Lothrop Ames came over – “something unusual for her” – and they visited and sewed together. Evelina was usually the one who went next door, not the other way around. In the evening, Evelina even felt well enough to go across the street to see Edwin and Augusta Gilmore.
The highlight of the day, however, had to be the commencement of haying. Old Oliver reported that “this was a fair warm day wind south west + verry dry We begun haying to day.”* The calendar may have indicated that summer had barely begun, but everyone knew that fall and winter lay ahead. That hay would be essential. And now that haymaking had begun, perhaps Old Oliver would be less irritable with his family members.
* Oliver Ames, Journal, Stonehill College Archives, Arnold Tofias Collection
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