! Critical Viewing
Describe how you think
the boy in this picture
might feel. [Connect]
e came into the room to shut the windows while we
were still in bed and I saw he looked ill. He was
shivering, his face was white, and he walked slowly
as though it ached to move.
“What’s the matter, Schatz1?”
“I’ve got a headache.”
“You better go back to bed.”
“No. I’m all right.”
“You go to bed. I’ll see you when I’m dressed.”
But when I came downstairs he was dressed, sitting by
the fire, looking a very sick and miserable boy of nine years.
When I put my hand on his forehead I knew he had a fever.
“You go up to bed,” I said, “you’re sick.”
“I’m all right,” he said.
When the doctor came he took the boy’s temperature.
“What is it?” I asked him.
“One hundred and two.”
Downstairs, the doctor left three different medicines in
different colored capsules with instructions for giving them.
One was to bring down the fever, another a purgative, the
1. Schatz (§äts) German term of affection, used here as a loving nickname.
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third to overcome an acid condition. The germs of influenza
can only exist in an acid condition, he explained. He seemed
to know all about influenza and said there was nothing to
worry about if the fever did not go above one hundred and
four degrees. This was a light epidemic of flu and there was
no danger if you avoided pneumonia.
Back in the room I wrote the boy’s temperature down and
made a note of the time to give the various capsules.
“Do you want me to read to you?”
“All right. If you want to,” said the boy. His 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.
I read aloud from Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates; but I could
see he was not following what I was reading.
“How do you feel, Schatz?” I asked him.
“Just the same, so far,” he said.
I sat at the foot of the bed and read to myself while I waited
for it to be time to give another capsule. It would have been
natural for him to go to sleep, but when I looked up he was
looking at the foot of the bed, looking very strangely.
“Why don’t you try to go to sleep? I’ll wake you up for the
medicine.”
Vocabulary
epidemic (ep« ß dem« ik)
n. outbreak of a
contagious disease
A Day’s Wait 87
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Vocabulary
flushed (flu§t) v.
drove from hiding
Fiction
Who is the narrator of
this work? How do you
know?
“I’d rather stay awake.”
After a while he said to me, “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.”
I thought perhaps he was a little
lightheaded and after giving him the
prescribed capsules at eleven o’clock I went
out for a while. It was a bright, cold day, the
ground covered with a sleet that had frozen
so that it seemed as if all the bare trees,
the bushes, the cut brush and all the grass
and the bare ground had been varnished
with ice. I took the young Irish setter for a
little walk up the road and along a frozen
creek, but it was difficult to stand or walk
on the glassy surface and the red dog
slipped and slithered and I fell twice, hard,
once dropping my gun and having it slide
away over the ice.
We flushed a covey of quail under a high
clay bank with overhanging brush and I killed two as they
went out of sight over the top of the bank. Some of the covey
lit in trees but most of them scattered into brush piles and
it was necessary to jump on the ice-coated mounds of brush
several times before they would flush. Coming out while you
were poised unsteadily on the icy, springy brush they made
difficult shooting, and I killed two, missed five, and started
back pleased to have found a covey close to the house and
happy there were so many left to find on another day.
At the house they said the boy had refused to let anyone
come into the room.
“You can’t come in,” he said. “You mustn’t get what I have.”
I went up to him and found him in exactly the position
I had left him, white-faced, but with the tops of his cheeks
flushed by the 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.
88 Fiction and Nonfiction
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“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 straight
ahead. He was evidently holding tight on to himself
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.”
LITERATURE IN CONTEXT
Science Connection
Temperature Scales
You might have been taught
that ice and snow melt when
the temperature is 32°F, or
Fahrenheit. Another commonly known temperature is
98.6°F—normal body temperature. Using the Celsius scale is
another matter. Water freezes
at 0° Celsius, or C, and boils at
100°C.
When temperature is
expressed one way and must
be converted to the other,
there are formulas or conversion charts to help. Today, only
the United States and Jamaica
still use Fahrenheit as the standard for most measurements.
Connect to the Literature
Why is the boy’s temperature
important to him and
his father?
Vocabulary
evidently (ev« ß dent» lè)
adv. clearly; obviously
How does the boy know
his temperature?
A Day’s Wait 89
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Spiral Review
Theme What critical
information has the
boy learned from this
conversation with his
father? How does his
reaction relate to a
possible theme?
al
C it e t e x teu t o
e v id e n c y o u r
support es.
respons
“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 different 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.
Critical Thinking
1. Key Ideas and Details (a) Why does the boy tell his father
to leave the sickroom? (b) Infer: What does this reveal about
the boy?
2. Key Ideas and Details (a) Why does the boy think he will
die? Use details from the story to support your response.
(b) Interpret: What is the meaning of the story’s title?
3. Key Ideas and Details (a) Analyze: Which of the boy’s
words and actions give clues that he believes something
terrible is wrong? (b) Evaluate: Do you think the story is
about the boy’s bravery or about the boy’s fear? Explain.
(c) Speculate: What might have happened if the boy had
shared his fears?
4. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas When the truth of
the boy’s illness is explained to him, what truth has he learned
about his character? [Connect to the Big Question: What is
the best way to find the truth?]
90 Fiction and Nonfiction
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Barrio Boy •
A Day’s Wait
from
After You Read
Comparing Fiction and Nonfiction
1. Craft and Structure (a) For each selection, tell whether
the narrator and events are real or imagined. (b) Based on
your answer, what rules about truth and accuracy did each
writer follow for writing these selections?
2. Key Ideas and Details Complete a chart like the one
shown to help you analyze one character in each story.
Street
on Fifth
ed south
and
and I walk
Q Street
y mother
corner of
ied
ing to the
was occup
one morn
the block
y
. Half of
three-stor
it
turned right School. It was a
ln
s that gave
by the Linco ing, with two wing
hall. It was
al
build
centr
en
a
wood
ected by
led roof that
le-T conn
, with a shing tlán. I noticed
e of a doub
shap
yellow
the
ed
l in Maza
ed
ing, paint
the schoo
. We walk
a new build
red tile of
reassuring the door,
the
very
like
gh
of them
was not
and throu
ed to
ences, none
hand in handl contraption screw
other differ
Vocabulary
staircase
reassuring
up the wide by itself. A mechanica
« i¢)
d
(rè ß §Ør
us quietly. enrolling me in the
which close
the effect
it behind
of
adj. having
on had told
adventure
the top shut
confidence
Mrs. Dods
point the
our
rsed.
on
this
of restoring
to
rehea
times
Up
al
ully
d it sever
been caref
tor
n
we had circle ined that the direc
school had
contraptio
1
find it and
§ßn)
and not a
barrio expla
us how to
(kßn trap«
ds in the
device
it was a lady a person at
n. strange
s
walks. Frien principal, and that
was alway
da
or machine
was calle
us that there ish.
assured
on the door
k Span
sign
spea
man. They
a
was
l who could
told, there
crossed the
the schoo
we had been sh: “Principal.” We
y.
Exactly as
ish and Engli
Nettie Hople sitting in a
side,
in both Span ed the office of Miss
desk to one
against
enter
a roll-top
hall and
was a sofa
y was at
ls. There
a door that
Miss Hople
d on whee
ows and
that move
table
two wind
around a
swivel chair
flanked by
long
rs were set
site wall,
Chai
oppo
ny.
the
a man with
.
a small balco on the walls of
a black beardus
opened on
res hung
face and
pictu
at
sad
ed
a
look
and fram
er with
l chair to
Nonfiction
and anoth
the swive
narrator
white hair
turned in
Who is the How
Hispanic.
ipal half
people are
The princ
most of the
of this work?
or city where
of a town
part
n.
ò)
can you tell?
è
Viewing
E Critical
picture conDoes this
ons that
vey the emoti feel as he
a child might
l?
new schoo
enrolls in a
ate]
Explain. [Evalu
(bär«
1. barrio
and
80 Fiction
Character
Detail
Nonfiction
Fiction or Nonfiction?
The boy in “A Day’s Wait”
Miss Ryan in Barrio Boy
third to
overcome
an acid cond
can only
exist in an
ition. The
germs of
acid cond
to know
all about
influenza
ition, he
influenza
explained.
worr y abou
and said
t
there was He seemed
four degre if the fever did not
nothing
es. This
go above
to
was
one hund
no danger
red and
if you avoid a light epidemic
of flu and
ed pneumoni
Back in
there was
the
a.
made a note room I wrote the
boy’s
of the time
“Do you
to give the temperature down
want me
various capsu
and
to read to
“All right
les.
you? ”
. If you want
white and
to,” said
there were
the boy.
the bed and
His face
dark areas
was very
under his
seemed very
eyes. He
I read aloud
detached
lay still in
from what
from Howa
see he was
was
rd Pyle’s
not follow
Book of Pirate going on.
ing what
“How do
s; but I could
I was readi
you feel,
Schatz?”
ng.
“Just the
I asked him.
same, so
far,” he said.
I sat at the
foot of the
for it to be
time to give bed and read to
myself while
natural for
another
capsule.
him to go
I waited
It would
looking at
to sleep,
have been
but when
the foot of
I looked
the bed,
“Why don’t
up he was
looking very
you try to
medicine.”
strangely.
go to sleep
? I’ll wake
you up for
the
Vocabulary
epidemic
( p« ß
n. outbre
ak
contagious of a
disease
A Day’s Wait
« ik)
87
3. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (a) How might
“A Day’s Wait” be different if it were nonfiction? (b) How
might Barrio Boy change if it were fiction?
Timed Writing
Explanatory Text: Essay
In a brief essay, compare and contrast the narrators of Barrio Boy and
“A Day’s Wait.” State your topic in the introduction and discuss how
the narrator presents the events in each work. Consider adding a chart
to show what is the same and different. (40 minutes)
5-Minute Planner
1. Gather your ideas by jotting down answers to these
lapl07253c10.ai
Grade 7, Unit 1
questions:
11/9/07
• Which work includes more personal details about the narrator?
• How is dialogue used in each work?
• Do the narrator’s thoughts and actions build toward a specific
theme or insight? Why or why not?
• Which narrator is central to the narrative’s action?
2. Choose an organizational strategy. If you use the block method,
present all the details about one narrator, then all the details
about the other narrator. If you use the point-by-point method,
discuss one aspect of both narrators, then another aspect of
both narrators, and so on.
3. Reread the prompt and then draft your essay.
from Barrio Boy • A Day’s Wait 91
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