一天的等待(中英).doc

A Day ’s Wait He 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, Schatz?" "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 Iput my hand on his forehead I knew he had a fever. "You goup 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 third to e an acid condition. The germs of influenza can only exist in an acid condition, he explained. He seemed toknow 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 whit