All them thieving scoundrels have been driven off.” The emergency transformation of Bush Hill is an example of forward-thinking ingenuity that saves countless lives. Stephen Girard, Lord bless his name, has taken over and turned this into a right proper hospital. When Mattie emerges from her fever and hears she’s at Bush Hill-known as one of Philadelphia’s worst hospitals-she learns from a nurse that “Bush Hill is now a respectable place Mr. The medical establishment in the city of Philadelphia also has to adapt to the ravages of the fever. Rather than relying on a strict application of what she’s been taught, Mattie creatively builds off her grandfather’s lessons in order to serve the pressing needs of the moment. For example, she uses her petticoat as a fishing net. She uses some of these to enable her weakened grandfather to survive when they’re abandoned in the Pennsylvania countryside-“Find a willow tree and you’ll soon find water nearby Raspberry bushes mean rabbits are about”-but she also has to improvise off of these basic skills using the objects she has at hand. From childhood, Mattie has been taught “old soldier’s tricks” and basic survival skills by her veteran grandfather. When the epidemic turns ordinary life upside down, adaptability proves to be a potentially lifesaving trait, both for Mattie and for the Philadelphia medical establishment. By showcasing Mattie and the doctors’ “American” traits of ingenuity and ambition in this way, Anderson suggests that characteristics like these, especially when directed toward the good of others and society at large, can help struggling people come together, survive, and thrive. A similar adaptability saves the day on a broader scale, helping Philadelphia doctors conquer the outbreak. However, Mattie still puts her ambition and ingenuity to work, proving herself adaptable and thereby surviving the fever, even helping others survive. Grandfather said I was a Daughter of Liberty, a real American girl.” The yellow fever epidemic disrupts all such dreams, making even ordinary survival seem an unlikely achievement. At the beginning of Fever 1793, Mattie Cook daydreams about her business ambitions: “I wanted to own an entire city block-a proper restaurant, an apothecary, maybe a school, or a hatter’s shop.
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