Chapter 8 Summary

Over the next few days, the church bells toll continually for the dead, as August makes way to September. The Ogilvie family, along with other affluent families, flees from the city as the fever spreads. Business at the coffeehouse almost completely vanishes. One day Mattie and her grandfather walk into another part of town and stop by a printer's shop. They learn that the College of Physicians has printed handbills advising several strategies for avoiding the fever, and that the city has decided to stop ringing church bells when people die. The almshouse has been shut down to prevent contagion, hundreds of people have died of the fever, and the rich families and the politicians have fled the city. After visiting the print shop Mattie and her grandfather return home where, just outside of the coffeehouse, they see a man wheeling a body...