"Now look here, I want to know something, and you've _got_ to tell me."
"Please, don't,--" began Rose, beseechingly.
"You _must_, or I'll pull off this shade and stare at the sun as hard as ever I can stare. Come now!" and he half rose, as if ready to execute the threat.
"I will! oh, I will tell, if I know! But don't be reckless and do any thing so crazy as that," cried Rose, in great distress.
"Very well; then listen, and don't dodge, as every one else does. Didn't the doctor think my eyes worse the last time he came? Mother won't say, but you _shall_."
"I thought so! Did he say I should be able to go to school when it begins?"
That was all, but Rose saw her cousin set his lips together and take a long breath, as if she had hit him hard. He bore the disappointment bravely, however, and asked quite steadily in a minute,--
"How soon does he think I _can_ study again?"
It was so hard to answer that! Yet Rose knew she must, for Aunt Jane had declared she _could_ not do it, and Uncle Mac had begged her to break the truth to the poor lad.
"How many?" he asked with a pathetic sort of gruffness.
"A whole year! Why, I expected to be ready for college by that time." And, pushing up the shade, Mac stared at her with startled eyes, that soon blinked and fell before the one ray of light.
"Plenty of time for that; you must be patient now, and get them thoroughly well, or they will trouble you again when it will be harder to spare them," she said, with tears in her own eyes.
"I won't do it! I _will_ study and get through somehow. It's all humbug about taking care so long. These doctors like to keep hold of a fellow if they can. But I won't stand it,--I vow I won't!" and he banged his fist down on the unoffending pillow as if he were pommelling the hard-hearted doctor.
"Now, Mac, listen to me," Rose said very earnestly, though her voice shook a little and her heart ached. "You know you have hurt your eyes reading by firelight and in the dusk, and sitting up late, and now you'll have to pay for it; the doctor said so. You _must_ be careful, and do as he tells you, or you will be--blind."
"Yes, it is true, and he wanted us to tell you that nothing but entire rest would cure you. I know it's dreadfully hard, but we'll all help you; I'll read all day long, and lead you, and wait upon you, and try to make it easier--"