July 21st Wednesday Have been at work on my
borage dress what time I have sewed
The weather is very hot and I can
work but little Julia & Elizabeth Pool
are at Edwins having some dresses
made by Julia Mahoney I called
to see them carried my work and
stoped awhile Have been to see
Augustus this evening he is quite feverish
“This was a verry warm day and the most scorching sun I ever felt […] it was warm all day and the night following verry,” reported Evelina’s father-in-law, Old Oliver Ames. She, herself, was enervated by the heat; she could “work but little.” She was alone, too, as Julia Mahoney, her usual dressmaker, was across the street at Edwin and Augusta Pool’s. Augusta had two sisters visiting who were having dresses made. Evelina walked over to join them for a time.
Alson Augustus Gilmore,Evelina’s nephew, was having no fun. He had a fever and in the heat must have felt as if he had landed in Hades. He was indoors, presumably, out of the direct sun at least. Old Oliver and his field hands, on the other hand, may have been outdoors haying in the blasting sunlight, the heat rising in waves around them. We can imagine that they stayed hydrated by drinking water ladled from buckets or a nearby well. No thermoses or bottled Dasani or Fuji or Poland Spring water for them.
evelinaames 