Eight Cousins

Mac is bedridden after the camping trip with a bad case of sunstroke, and just as he is recovering, he loses his sight from straining his eyes by reading in bad light. The doctor prescribes him many weeks of rest in a darkened room to recover. While everyone is keen to help cheer Mac up by reading aloud to him, Rose remains with Mac constantly, even after the others’ initial enthusiasm wears off. She stays and reads to Mac for hours each day, despite his sullenness, and tries her best to comfort him. This gains her much gratitude from Uncle Alec and her aunts, who admire her devotion and nursing skill.

When after a few weeks the doctor declares that Mac won’t be able to return to school that fall, and it may take up to a year for him to recover, it falls to Rose to break the bad news to Mac. When he threatens to disobey the doctor’s orders, she counsels him of the consequence of losing his sight altogether. Afraid, he begins to cry, and Rose soothes him and bathes his eyes, singing him to sleep with a Scottish song.