forth blog

Dear all. In this blog I have summarized chapter 16 to 22.

Mattie wakes two days after she fainted to find out she is in an hospital. She sleeps for several days. She finally becomes mentally alert enough to learn that her grandfather has transported her to Bush Hill Hospital in Philadelphia. She finds herself under the care of Mrs. Flagg, a hospital volunteer. Mattie is alarmed because Bush Hill has a reputation for being a filthy place where people are sent to die. She quickly learns that Bush Hill has been refurbished by a wealthy local citizen. Over the next several days, Mattie recovers from yellow fever while her grandfather occasionally visits and flirts with Mrs. Flagg.
While Mattie continues to convalesce, she heard many stories of the horrors caused by the fever epidemic. All around her, other patients die even as she continues to recover her health and strength. Mattie frets about her mother and often wonders what will become of her once she is discharged from Bush Hill. She becomes well enough to be moved from the hospital to an outlying recovery building. While she recovers her grandfather visits several times each day.
Finally, Mattie is discharged from the hospital. A hospital clerk suggests that the proper place for Mattie is the orphanage, but Mattie insists she be allowed to return to the coffeehouse. Mattie convinces the clerk that she is not an orphaned child, and she is allowed to leave the hospital alone.
After two days, Mattie is discharged. She climbs into a wagon full of orphaned fever survivors. Mattie talks to one of the orphanage workers and tells her that she, Mattie, will be turning fifteen in just three more months. She allows herself to contemplate her future and drifts off into a daydream about becoming a successful and wealthy coffeehouse matron.
As the wagon drives through Philadelphia Mattie's daydreams are interrupted by horrible scenes - dead bodies cast into the road, abandoned shops and homes, and frightened fugitives who flee when the hear the wagon's approach. The wagon continues and takes Mattie and her grandfather to their coffeehouse. They find that their residence has been looted and vandalized. Mattie and her grandfather despair about the future and Mattie finds herself on the verge of tears. Instead of crying, she steels her resolve and begins to clean the coffeehouse and search for food. She finds that the small family garden plot is nearly non-existent. She manages to haul water inside, water what plants remain, and gather some scraps of food that the insects haven't eaten. After her grandfather drifts to sleep, Mattie reacquaints herself with Silas.
In the morning, Mattie boils water and continues to clean the coffeehouse. After cleaning for several hours, she realizes she is in filthy clothing, crusted with the filth of the fever. She bathes herself and then reluctantly dresses herself in her mother's clothing. Mattie spends the rest of the day cleaning the garden. In the evening she falls asleep on the ground floor.
Mattie is awakened from a dream of food by a sound. She realizes that two strange men have climbed into the coffeehouse through an open window. The two men are looking for items of value. Mattie hides in the deep shadows. Mattie's grandfather, upstairs, awakens from the noise and comes down the stairs armed with a musket. Grandfather Cook instructs the men to leave, but instead they advance on him - he discharges the musket but misses his mark. One of the men flees but the other beats Grandfather Cook and begins to strangle him.
Mattie awakens the next day down the street with a cart and calling for dead bodies. Although she is disgusted by the thought of loading her grandfather's body onto such a cart, she realizes that in the heat he will begin to decompose quickly and she has no way of transporting him to the cemetery. She then assists him in pushing the cart through the streets and out to the cemetery where she watches her grandfather's body be interred in a mass grave.
Mattie then wanders through the deserted city, finding a little girl alone.
Mattie learns the young girl's name is Nell. She carries the little girl into the streets. Mattie starts to search for Eliza and finally finds her in a strange section of town.
Mattie tells Eliza about what has happened to her since the epidemic began. Eliza tells Mattie that Mrs. Cook had recovered somewhat and had gone to the Luddington's farm. Mattie learns that while Eliza spends her days helping others, an older woman sits with the twin children. In the evening, Mattie and Eliza relate all of the details of the events that have transpired since they became separated.