A Day’s Wait

by

Ernest Hemingway

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on A Day’s Wait makes teaching easy.
Need another quote?
Need analysis on another quote?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
Request it
Request it
Request analysis
Request analysis
Request analysis
“A Day’s Wait” Quotes

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.

Related Characters: The Father (speaker), Schatz (The Son) (speaker)
Related Symbols: Temperature
Page Number: 332
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: The Father (speaker), Schatz (The Son) (speaker)
Page Number: 333
Explanation and Analysis:

At the house they said the boy had refused to let any one come into the room.

“You can’t come in,” he said. “You mustn’t get what I have.”

Related Characters: The Father (speaker), Schatz (The Son) (speaker)
Page Number: 333
Explanation and Analysis:

“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 onto himself about something.

Related Characters: The Father (speaker), Schatz (The Son) (speaker)
Related Symbols: Temperature
Page Number: 334
Explanation and Analysis:

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?”

Related Characters: The Father (speaker), Schatz (The Son) (speaker)
Related Symbols: Book of Pirates
Page Number: 334
Explanation and Analysis:

“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.

“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.”

Related Characters: The Father (speaker), Schatz (The Son) (speaker)
Related Symbols: Temperature
Page Number: 334
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: The Father (speaker), Schatz (The Son)
Page Number: 334
Explanation and Analysis:
No matches.