(zero) for its freezing point and 100° for the boiling point
14 Pyle, Howard (1853-1911): an American illustrator, painter and author.
fever, staring still, as he had stared, at the foot of the bed.
I took his temperature.
"What is it?"
"Something like a hundred," I said. It was one hundred and two and four tenths.
"It was a hundred and two," he said.
"Who said so?"
"The doctor."
"Your temperature is all right," I said. "It's nothing to worry about."
"I don't worry," he said, "but I can't keep from thinking."
"Don't think," I said. "Just take it easy."
"I'm taking it easy," he said and looked worried about something.
"Take this with water."
"Do you think it will do any good?"
"Of course, it will,"
I sat down and opened the Pirate Book and commenced to read but I could see he was not
following, so I stopped.
"About what time do you think I'm 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 a hundred and two."
"People don't die with a fever of one hundred and two. That's a silly way to talk!"
"I know they do. 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.
"You poor Schatz," I said. "Poor old Schatz, it's like miles and kilometers. You aren't going to
die. That's a diflerent thermometer. On that thermometer thirty-seven is normal. On this kind it's
ninety-eight."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely," I said. "It's like miles and kilometers. You know, like how many kilometers we
make when we do seventy miles in the car?"
"Oh," he said.
But his gaze at the foot of the bed relaxed slowly. The hold over himself relaxed too, finally,
and the next day it was very slack and he cried very easily at little things that were of no importance.
VOCABULARY NOTES
1. to shiver υi дрожать, as shiver with cold
Syn. to tremble, to shudder, to start; to tremble is the most general word;
shuddering/starting is generally the result of (great) fear or disgust, е.g. He seemed perfectly calm,
only a slight trembling of his voice and hands showed he was excited. Keith shuddered at the sight
of the dead body. The child was shivering with cold. She started when they came in.
2. achen (a continuous, not sharp or sudden, pain). Usually used in compounds: headache,
toothache, stomachache, earache, backache, е.g. I had a bad headache yesterday. Some people
have (a) bad earache when the plane is losing height.