Mathilda Gokey a.k.a. Mattie Timeline and Summary

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• (Present) Grace Brown dies after giving Mattie a bundle of letters.
• (Flashback) Mattie describes a typical day on her farm with her family, revealing her mother is dead, her brother is gone, and her father is not happy.
• While picking fiddleheads, Mattie and her best friend Weaver word duel and talk about their dreams of college; Royal Loomis helps Mattie plow the Gokey field, and Mattie's crush on him deepens.
• At school, Mattie receives an acceptance letter from Barnard College, contingent on her high school diploma, but doesn't know how she will attend without her father's permission or the money needed.
• Mattie and Royal fight about the importance of words.
• (Present) Mattie tries to get rid of the letters, but can't.
• (Flashback) When Mattie visits Minnie to tell her about being accepted into college, she ends up helping Minnie deliver twin babies.
• After Pa realizes Mattie spent money she made gathering fiddleheads on herself instead of the family, he hits her in anger.
• Mattie works for her Aunt Josie and asks her to loan Mattie the money for college, but Aunt Josie refuses.
• After Mattie collects Daisy the cow from the Loomis farm once again, Royal kisses her.
• When Weaver gets into an altercation with a white man at the train station, Mattie considers the power of words.
• (Present) Mattie visits Grace's body and begins to read Grace's letters.
• (Flashback) When Uncle Fifty visits, Mattie realizes that he can actually help her pay for college, but he disappears before this can come to fruition.
• Miss Wilcox tells Pa that Mattie's been accepted to college, and he's angry with both of them for this news.
• Mattie's wooed by Royal.
• After lunching with Miss Wilcox, Mattie is able to earn money by organizing her books and is also able to borrow whatever books she wants.
• (Present) Mattie reads more letters and realizes Grace is pregnant.
• (Flashback) Hearing Miss Wilcox fight with an unknown man, Mattie then learns that Miss Wilcox is really Emily Baxter, infamous poet.
• Royal proposes to Mattie, and she accepts.
• On a visit to the Hubbard house, Mattie realizes the sexual nature of the relationship between Frank Loomis and Emmie Hubbard.
• (Present) Mattie realizes that Chester Gillette brought Grace to the Glenmore to kill her.
• (Flashback) Mattie goes to work at the Glenmore to pay for a new mule for her father and adjusts to the new society.
• After a visit to Minnie and the twins, Mattie wonders if she has to give up her passion for language and writing to become a wife.
• Mattie's family falls sick, and she takes a leave of absence to care for them.
• (Present) Mattie realizes Royal doesn't love her after reading Grace's letters.
• (Flashback) When Miss Wilcox tells Mattie she has to leave Eagle Bay because of her husband, Mattie reveals that she's going to marry Royal; Weaver also doesn't react well.
• At the Fourth of July celebration, Mattie realizes that one of the reasons Royal is marrying her is to kick Emmie Hubbard off her land and to take over Pa Gokey's farm; when Royal gives Mattie a cookbook, she realizes that he doesn't really know her at all.
• (Present) Grace's ghost visits Mattie.
• (Flashback) Mattie and her friends get their revenge on the horrible table six.
• When trappers burn down Weaver's house burns down, Mattie realizes that his dream is gone since the trappers stole all his college money.
• (Present) Mattie wonders what will happen to Grace's voice if she burns the letters.
• (Flashback) Mattie wishes there were really happy endings in real life after she sees how Weaver's mamma is adjusting to life with Emmie Hubbard.
• (Present) Mattie realizes she needs to leave Eagle Bay. She gives her money away, gives the ring back to Royal, and tells Weaver she's going.
• Although she'll miss Eagle Bay, she realizes that she'll never really leave it behind as she boards a train to New York City and her future.