ways sends me off."

Quite contented with this small return for all her sympathy, Rose waved
her fan and sang, in a dreamy tone, the pretty Scotch air, the burden of
which is,

"Bonny lassie, will ye gang, will ye gang
To the Birks of Aberfeldie?"

Whether the lassie went or not I cannot say, but the laddie was off to
the land of Nod, in about ten minutes, quite worn out with hearing the
bad tidings and the effort to bear them manfully.

Chapter 12--"The Other Fellows"

Rose did tell "the people" what had passed, and no one "howled" over
Mac, or said a word to trouble him. He had his talk with the doctor, and
got very little comfort out of it, for he found that "just what he might
do" was nothing at all; though the prospect of some study by and by, if
all went well, gave him courage to bear the woes of the present.
Having made up his mind to this, he behaved so well that everyone was
astonished, never having suspected so much manliness in the quiet Worm.

The boys were much impressed, both by the greatness of the affliction
which hung over him and by his way of bearing it. They were very good
to him, but not always particularly wise in their attempts to cheer
and amuse; and Rose often found him much downcast after a visit of
condolence from the Clan. She still kept her place as head-nurse and
chief-reader, though the boys did their best in an irregular sort of
way. They were rather taken aback sometimes at finding Rose's services
preferred to their's, and privately confided to one another that "Old
Mac was getting fond of being molly-coddled." But they could not help
seeing how useful she was, and owning that she alone had remained
faithful a fact which caused some of them much secret compunction now
and then.

Rose felt that she ruled in that room, if nowhere else, for Aunt Jane
left a great deal to her, finding that her experience with her invalid
father fitted her for a nurse, and in a case like this, her youth was
an advantage rather than a drawback. Mac soon came to think that no one
could take care of him so well as Rose, and Rose soon grew fond of
her patient, though at first she had considered this cousin the least
attractive of the seven. He was not polite and sensible like Archie, nor
gay and handsome like Prince Charlie, nor neat and obliging like Steve,
nor amusing like the "Brats," nor confiding and affectionate like
little Jamie. He was rough, absent-minded, careless, and awkward, rath