Charles McCall Fever 1793

Fever 1793 is a book where a young girl named Mattie survives Yellow Fever. The scene that stood out to me was when Mattie and Grandfather come home to Mother being dumped on the street. Before this, Mattie and Grandfather left the coffeehouse to go get food. On their way back home, a man with a cart rushes past Mattie and Grandfather protests the man carrying sick people in a cart. Grandfather says that the man should not be moving the sick during the day when good people are around. The man with the cart rushes towards the coffeehouse. Mother is dumped on the street by the man. Grandfather rushes by Mother’s side to pick her up. When Mother is carried back in, she is taken to her bed to rest. Mattie thinks Mother is going to scold her but she doesn’t. While mother rests in bed, Mattie is surprised to see mother resting in the middle of the day. Mother tells Mattie to go get busy in the coffeehouse. This scene is important because mother would never rest in the middle of the day. This shows something is definitely wrong with Mother.