Answer:
I'd say the major theme is determination, relentlessness, seizing the moment, not throwing away your shot, as it were. This is the recurring theme of Hamilton's life. A major secondary theme is that while history has its eyes on you, ultimately you have no control over who lives, who dies, who tells your story.
Explanation:
This story describes the relationship between a father and his son. He is a caring, loving father: he calls his son "Schatz", which means, "my treasure", and is concerned about his health. He spends time with his son, reading aloud to him and giving him his medicine.
The family's home is in the country, and the father is a hunter. He does not express joy at killing the birds, or does he show greed; he probably hunts the quail for food, as he is glad that many birds remain alive for him to find another day.
The boy dramatizes his illness. The doctor has taken the boy's temperature and does not find it to be a cause for alarm. However, the boy firmly believes that his temperature is more than deadly, and he thinks that he is therefore doomed to die. This is an intercultural issue, as the French measure temperature by centigrades, where as Americans measure it by Farenheit degrees. Hence the confusion.
