responds, "One hundred and two."

• The rising action [inciting incident] 

Schatz overhears the doctor saying that his temperature is one hundred and two. After the two men go downstairs, the doctor gives the father some medicine for the influenza, informing the father that there is nothing to worry about as long as the boy's temperature does not go above one hundred and four degrees. But, when the father returns, he finds his son's

... face was very white and there were dark areas under his eyes. He lay still in the bed and seemed very detached from what was going on.

• The rising action [Complication]

The father administers to his son the medicine from the doctor. Sitting at the foot of the boy's bed, the father reads as he waits for the time to administer another dosage. However, as he waits, the father notices that Schatz has not gone to sleep; instead, he is "looking very strangely" at the end of the bed. When the father asks him why he does not sleep, Schatz replies, "I'd rather stay awake." After some time, Schatz tells his father he does not have to stay if "it bothers" him. The father replies that he is not bothered. Thinking that the boy is a little lightheaded, he goes out for a while after giving Schatz his medicine again. 
When he returns, the father is told that his son has refused to allow any one to come into his room, saying, "You musn't get what I have."
After entering the boy's room, the father finds his boy's face blanched, but the tops of his cheeks are red; so, he takes the boy's temperature. It is one hundred and two and four tenths, but the father says it is "Something like a hundred." Schatz tells his father that it was one hundred and two. "Who said so?" asks the father, and his boy replies, "The doctor."

• The climax

The father informs his son that his temperature is nothing to worry about, but Schatz oddly replies, "I don't worry...but I can't keep from thinking." Then, the father notices that his son is "holding tight onto himself about something." When the father administers more medicine, Schatz asks if it will really help him. "Of course it will," replies the father; then, he begins to read again to the boy.

"About what time do you think I am going to die?" he asked.
"What?"
"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. I heard him say one hundred and two."

The father assures his son that no one dies with a temperature of one hundred and two. But Schatz tells him that when he was in school in France, the boys told him that a person cannot live with a temperature of forty-four degrees, and his temperature is much higher than this.

• Reversal [final part of the climax]

 It is then that the father realizes why Schatz has acted so strangely: He has misunderstood the differences between Centigrade degrees and Fahrenheit degrees. The father explains this difference to his son.

• Falling action 

Now the father realizes that poor Schatz has been waiting to die all day; furthermore, he has left the boy alone in his anxiety. As the father makes efforts to console him, Schatz slowly relaxes and gives up his courageous determination to meet death.

• Resolution

Schatz suffers a backlash from his tight control over himself the previous day, and he becomes somewhat detached from reality: "...he cried very easily at little things that were of no importance."