Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1700's~

Alas, the worst has come to pass: my beloved husband, Edgar, has fallen ill.  He has a high temperature, his face is flushed from fever, he coughs bad, and he cannot keep anything down.  I am most worried for him ...

Edgar was fine when he left for the shipyards yesterday; today, around 12 he came home, bent over from paroxyms of uncontrollable coughing.  He looked bad and he looks even more so as I write this with trembling hand ...

I am worried that our children, Patience Remember (11), Simeon Abraham (9), and sickly little Edgar Allen, Jr. (4) will next fall victim.  I must do everything possible to keep them out of harm's way.  I will probably send them over to Mother's; she is better at handling them in a crisis situation than I am: I don't hide my feelings very well and if they see me acting worried, it will be even more impossible to take care of them properly while I tend to my poor sick, suffering husband.

I don't know what is going on, except that The Fever is rumoured to be caused by mosquitos.  O, those lowly, foul creatures!!  It doesn't help it's been humid and sufferingly hot out: we haven't had a good decent rainfall in weeks and everything is dying or drying up ...

It  may be November on the calendar, but it feels more like the middle of August.  How I wish the north winds would blow, thus, ending this ongoing heat; it's already been hot for far too long as it is!  And we are in dire relief of moisture from Mother Nature!

I also blame the man with the yellow face that we saw last week.  If it were not for him, people here would not be falling ill or dying.  I suspect he might have had yellow fever: his face was a deep, bright yellow colour and his eyes were bloodshot and rheumy.  He did not look at all healthy.  I can only hope one thing: that he goes away; if not, I hope the good men of our city locate him and run him clean out of town!!

~To be continued.~