Her darling was utterly blind.

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And now imagine to yourselves how the afflicted parents sent for the best doctors the country afforded, and how one thing after another was tried—­but, alas! every thing in vain, for the medical men were all quite puzzled.  Still some people gave them hopes, and in spite of many disappointments, they went on trying to hope for several months.  At last they settled to leave the sea castle and go to the great town sooner than usual, thinking some of the doctors there might be cleverer than the country ones.  But they had no better success.  Perhaps now you would like to know how Roderick behaved.  When his Mamma fell on his bed, at first he thought she was dead, and it was with the greatest difficulty he could be made to believe any thing else, and he cried, and cried, and was very sad till his Mamma was well enough for him to be taken to her, and then do you know, poor fellow, he was so much pleased to hear her speak, and be kissed by her, that he still had no time to think about himself.  Only he begged to sit close to her, and have hold either of her hand or gown, and make her say something to him every now and then.  And so it was that the fright and shock he had had about thinking she was dead, had made so strong an impression on him that for several days the making himself sure she was alive was a constant occupation and interest; and so much did he think about it that it was considered best for his little bed to be brought into the room where his Mamma slept, and put near hers, so that he could talk to her when he awoke and got frightened about her again.  And thus passed many days in which every body thought a great deal more about his eyes than he did himself.  Besides from the cheerful things they said to him he quite expected to be better some day; and so weeks and months passed, and by the time the hope of recovering his sight began to fade away, and nobody any longer dared to say they expected it, he was beginning to get used to his condition, and to find out amusements in new ways.  Thus mercifully does a kind Providence temper people’s minds to the afflictions He sends.  They are often more dreadful to think of than to bear; for God can give patience and cheerfulness and comfort to those that do not grumble and repine.

Madeline only exacted one promise from her husband, namely, that he would not allow the doctors to use any very severe and violent measures with her little boy, and this being settled, she struggled to bear the trouble with resignation.  After the first alternations of hopes and fears were over, the Mother’s mind took a new turn.  “It is our chief duty now,” she said, “to make our child’s life as happy as it is possible to be with blindness, and therefore,” added she to the elder children, “we must try our best to teach him to do all the nice things he can without seeing.”  That day she asked him to come and hold worsted for