Mattie stays with her mother and grandfather above the family coffee shop. She wanted her business to be the best in Philadelphia but soon the fever breaks out.
Mattie wanted to take her mother who is sick and leave the town. But she realizes that the fever is everywhere and wanted to stay there and survive in the same place.
'The street teemed with horsemen, carriages, and carts'. 'I woke up with a fervent prayer of thanks that I had not fallen ill'.These sentences show how Philadelphia had changed.