one of which is designed to lower the fever. After the doctor departs, the father returns to the boy's bedroom and offers to read to him. But Schatz seems "very detached from what was going on," and he is pale with dark areas under his eyes. Without his father's knowing it, Schatz has overheard the doctor say his temperature is 102, and because he goes to school in France, he has heard from other boys that "you can't live with [a temperature] of forty-four." Therefore, Schatz thinks he is going to die.

Since he thinks he will not live, he tells his father, 

"You don't have to stay in here with me, Papa, if it bothers you."
"It doesn't bother me."
"No, I mean you don't have to stay if it's going to bother you."

Misunderstanding Schatz's meaning, the father simply assumes that his son is light-headed from the fever and the medication that he gives him. He leaves to go hunting, hoping the boy will sleep quietly while he is gone. However, when the father returns, he is told that Schatz has forbidden everyone from entering his room so that no one will catch his illness. He approaches Schatz and discerns that the boy is yet pale, "staring still as he had stared at the foot of the bed." He takes the boy's temperature, and it has lowered to around 100. "It was 102," Schatz says. The father asks him how he knows this because he has not realized that his conversation with the physician was overheard. Schatz replies, "The doctor."

His father tries to reassure Schatz that his temperature is nothing to worry about, but Schatz seems to be "holding tight onto something." Finally, Schatz asks, "About what time do you think I'm going to die?" The father is astounded by this question, and he asks his son, "What's the matter with you?" The boy insists that he is going to die because the students at school have told him that "you can't live with forty-four degrees. I've got a hundred and two." Then the father realizes that poor Schatz believed that his temperature was in Celsius when he overheard the doctor. He explains to his son the difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit and reassures him that he will be all right. However, although the boy's hold over himself relaxes, the next day poor Schatz cries easily at little things as a backlash to his previous self-control.

The little boy nicknamed "Schatz" handles his illness with stoicism. He keeps it a secret that he has overheard the doctor saying that he has a fever of 102 degrees. The reader might guess that the little boy has picked up his father's beliefs about acting with courage in dangerous situations. It is significant that Hemingway tells his son a simplified version of his own attitude about showing courage in the following exchange:

"I don't worry," he said, "but I can't keep from thinking."
"Don't think," I said. "Just take it easy."

The narrator might be a soldier talking to a comrade in the trenches. There can be no doubt that this is a story about Hemingway's own son—that Hemingway was so impressed by the nine-year-old boy's display of courage that he wrote the story as a sort of tribute. If Schatz hadn't felt obliged to keep his knowledge and his fear a secret, one of his parents could have quickly explained the boy's mistake and put his mind at ease. It isn't until he asks his father how long he has to live that the narrator, Hemingway himself, understands the problem.

"About how long will it be before I die?"
"You aren't going to die. What's the matter with you?"
"Oh, yes, I am. At school in France the boys told me you can't live with forty-four degrees. I've got a hundred and two."
He had been waiting to die all day, ever since nine o'clock in the morning.

The short story "A Day's Wait" by Ernest Hemingway tells of a nine-year-old boy whose nickname is Schatz. He becomes ill, and after recognizing that he has a fever, his father sends him to bed. The doctor takes the boy's temperature, which he announces is 102 degrees. He then prescribes various medications.

Downstairs, where the boy cannot hear, the doctor explains to the boy's father that the boy has influenza, or flu. He says that there is a light epidemic of flu going around and that there is nothing to worry about as long as the boy's temperature does not go above 104 degrees.

This comforts the father, but the boy becomes very depressed and withdrawn. He is unable to sleep and says things that don't quite make sense to the father.

After the father takes a walk to go hunting, he returns to the house and has a conversation with the boy in which he finally finds out what is wrong. The boy had been attending school in France, and in France the system for measuring temperature is different. There he was told that when people get temperatures above 44 degrees they die. His father explains to the boy about the differences in measuring temperatures between the countries, and the boy becomes relieved. All day, after he had heard the doctor read his temperature, Schatz had thought that he had something far more serious than the flu and that he was going to die. After he hears the truth, the boy is finally able to fall asleep. The next day, though, he feels very vulnerable and sensitive.