At first Mattie doesn't appreciate her then grows to love her. Mother Smith is very wise and tells Mattie if she's doing wrong. Sent to help take care of Joseph due to his tragic loss, she tries all that she can to help him recover. Mother SmithĪ member of the Free African Society.

When ill, he is taken care of by Mother Smith and Eliza. His wife, Betty had recently died from the fever and when Mattie first met him he was still recovering. He works as a cooper and has twin sons: William and Robert. Then she is offered a partnership with Mattie and the coffeehouse which she accepts. She helps Mattie live through the fever and they both survive. Mattie also claims Eliza to be her best friend.

Eliza is a free African American and is part of the Free African Society. He is a parrot that gets on Matilda's nerves. Matilda realizes she has lost King George after she gets back to her grandfather under the tree. Grandfather won him in a card game and he is often disliked by Matilda. King GeorgeĪ parrot named after the British King George III. He dies after they get back to the coffee house during a break-in. After his son dies, Grandfather began helping Lucille, Eliza, and Matilda run the coffeehouse. He was once a captain in the Revolutionary War under General Washington's command. It is difficult for her to locate Matilda but after the epid William Cook She catches Yellow Fever and throughout the book she tries to be reunited with her daughter. Lucille is Matilda's mother! Matilda's mother was the owner of the coffeehouse when the book began,and she was very strict with Matilda. When Polly dies, Mattie takes her chores.

She then finds and takes care of a small orphan girl, Nell, whose mother died of yellow fever.

Matilda got yellow fever, but survived, being taken care of at a hospital in Bush Hill. She matures throughout the course of the book which forces her to control her own life instead of her mother. She is a fourteen year old girl who is nicknamed 'Mattie.' She has a crush on Nathaniel Benson, a painter's assistant, and once watched the first hot air balloon (Blanchard's balloon) in America rise with him. Protagonist and main character of the book.

Allusion fever 1793 lucille cook