Chapter 23, Still in Prison Summary and Analysis

Linda passes another summer and winter in her den. During the second winter she spends confined in the garret, she becomes very ill. She comes very near death, but her family manages to save her.

The anxiety over Linda's illness makes her grandmother very ill as well. Phillip, Nancy, William, and various ladies of the neighborhood come to tend to her, but Linda is powerless to help her in her state of hiding (not to mention her own illness). She worries that her grandmother may die on her account. Mrs. Flint is irritated when Aunt Marthy's daughter, Nancy, asks for permission to visit her, but, upon hearing that the other ladies in town are making an effort to help the sick woman, Mrs. Flint decides she must call on Aunt Marthy herself to keep up...