Saturday afternoon he felt a little better; we planned then what we would do when he got well.  The doctor had said that he should allow himself at least a month before going back to college.  One month given to us!  “Just think of the writing I can get done, being around home with my family!” There was an article for Taussig half done to appear in the “Quarterly Journal of Economics,” a more technical analysis of the I.W.W. than had appeared in the “Atlantic Monthly”; he had just begun a review for the “American Journal of Economics” of Hoxie’s “Trade-Unionism.”  Then he was full of ideas for a second article he had promised the “Atlantic”—­“Is the United States a Nation?”—­“And think of being able to see all I want of the June-Bug!”

Since he had not slept for three nights, the doctor left powders which I was to give him for Saturday night.  Still he could not sleep.  He thought that, if I read aloud to him in a monotonous tone of voice, he could perhaps drop off.  I got a high-school copy of “From Milton to Tennyson,” and read every sing-songy poem I could find—­“The Ancient Mariner” twice, hardly pronouncing the words as I droned along.  Then he began to get delirious.

It is a very terrifying experience—­to see for the first time a person in a delirium, and that person the one you love most on earth.  All night long I sat there trying to quiet him—­it was always some mediation, some committee of employers he was attending.  He would say:  “I am so tired—­can’t you people come to some agreement, so that I can go home and sleep?”

At first I would say:  “Dearest, you must be quiet and try to go to sleep.”—­“But I can’t leave the meeting!” He would look at me in such distress.  So I learned my part, and at each new discussion he would get into, I would suggest:  “Here’s Will Ogburn just come—­he’ll take charge of the meeting for you.  You come home with me and go to sleep.”  So he would introduce Will to the gathering, and add:  “Gentlemen, my wife wants me to go home with her and go to sleep—­good-bye.”  For a few moments he would be quiet.  Then, “O my Lord, something to investigate!  What is it this time?” I would cut in hastily:  “The Government feels next week will be plenty of time for this investigation.”  He would look at me seriously.  “Did you ever know the Government to give you a week’s time to begin?” Then, “Telegrams—­more telegrams!  Nobody keeps their word, nobody.”

About six o’clock in the morning I could wait no longer and called the doctor.  He pronounced it pneumonia—­an absolutely different case from any he had ever seen:  no sign of it the day before, though it was what he had been watching for all along.  Every hospital in town was full.  A splendid trained nurse came at once to the house—­“the best nurse in the whole city,” the doctor announced with relief.