Plot
This is the season when Chapter 1 begins.
What is late summer?
This is the name of the main character and narrator of the novel.
Who is Matilda (Mattie) Cook?
In 1793, this city was both the setting of the novel and the capital of the United States.
What is Philadelphia?
This deadly disease is spreading through Philadelphia in 1793.
What is yellow fever?
This vocabulary word describes Matilda's mother's family, who were very rich.
What is wealthy?
Polly is found to have this problem in Chapter 2, alarming the household.
What is she is sick and dying of fever?
Matilda is this age in 1793, calculated from the end of the War of Independence in 1783 when she was four.
What is 14 years old?
This is the type of business the Cook family owns and operates.
What is a coffeehouse?
Cannons are blasted in the public square in Chapter 8 for this purpose.
What is to purify or cleanse the air of disease?
This vocabulary word describes how Mother looked after the death of Father — sad and miserable.
What is wretched?
In Chapter 8, Matilda and Grandfather see a man with a cart doing this on the streets.
What is collecting dead bodies?
Matilda's mother's family stopped speaking to her for this reason.
What is she married below her social class?
The area that Mattie normally enjoys but should avoid during this time.
What is the market?
The Mayor issues orders on page 58 asking citizens to follow these during the epidemic.
What are public health rules or precautions?
This vocabulary word describes all the citizens as the number of deaths was rising — worried and agitated.
What is in a lather?
Mother does this frightening action at the end of Chapter 9 that shocks Matilda.
What is throw a book at Matilda?
Grandfather served under this famous person, mentioned in Chapter 4.
Who is George Washington?
This is the main conflict of the story and the type of conflict it represents.
What is the yellow fever epidemic; person vs nature?
Mr. Carris's theory in Chapter 4 blames this specific thing for causing the sickness.
What is miasma (bad or rotting air)?
This word describes the struggle Matilda's family faced when deciding what to do with extra money from the coffeehouse.
What is a dilemma?
These are three of the orders the Mayor requested citizens to follow in Chapter 8.
What is the dead should be buried quietly, houses with sick people should be marked, and people should drink alcohol in moderation?
This is what connects Lucille and Eliza.
What is they both lost their husbands?
Matilda visits this wealthy family's home in Chapter 7.
What is the Ogilvie mansion?
Women in 1793 were expected to behave and dress in this particular way, as shown in the story.
What is modestly and demurely, wearing long skirts and behaving quietly in public?
This phrase describes what Matilda's mother's family did to her after she married a carpenter — they abandoned her completely.
What is wash their hands of her?