The Fourth Life of Sean Donoghue by Trish Hanan (children's books read aloud .txt) 📕

marry, why doesn’t she tell her father that and just marry the lad?” he asked and the other men frowned. The Mike spoke up.
“The Hamish changed the age law to twenty-one for women so she can’t move out from her father’s house until she’s twenty-one or get married without his permission until then,” he informed Sean who looked appalled. Then another man spoke up.
“And her father wants her to marry Ted Stevens who a widower with four children because Ted is his best friend and offered him two hundred gilders for her, the poor lad doesn’t have two hundred gilders,” he told Sean who now looked outraged.
“Where’s Ken Hamilton?” he asked and they pointed him out. Sean looked at the young dark-haired boy was staring at a young dark-haired girl who was staring at him, love in both their eyes. Her mother had a good grip on her daughter’s arm and was glaring at the young man while her father was laughing and talking with a fat man who was staring at the girl with lust in his eyes. The whole affair made Sean want to vomit. He walked over to the young man and began to talk to him. They left the party and returned a half hour later.
The men in the group watched them walk over to the Duncans and Sean talked to Mr. Duncan. Whatever he was saying made Ted Stevens very angry and he began to shout and took a punch at Sean who merely stepped aside and pushed him down. The man was drunk enough to stay down. Sean helped by casually putting his foot on top of him and resting it there. Now everyone was watching the scene with interest.
Then Sean took a little pouch out of his bag and showed something to Mrs. Duncan and everyone saw her gasp with shock and lose her grip on her daughter. Emily ran immediately to Ken’s side and they clasped hands, her parents didn’t even notice, they were too busy staring at Sean’s hand. Then Mr. Duncan nodded and he and Sean shook hands. And whatever had been in his left hand was deposited in Mr. Duncan’s hand and he carefully wrapped it in his hankie and put it in his pocket. They barely glanced at their daughter as they left the party. Emily and Ken hugged Sean who just laughed and the two left for his parent’s house.
The next day Father Zucker married them and they lived with his parents until the spring when they built a new house in the valley. Sean and some of his family helped them and Sean gave Emily a sewing machine as a wedding present. Mrs. Duncan was seen walking around town sporting her new emerald earrings and Mr. Duncan bought two new mules with the coin he got with the emeralds he sold. Everyone was happy with the exception of Ted Stevens and Sean was a hero to everyone who loved a happy ending.
After the wedding Sean was talking with Mike and Ben in the tavern when he asked them a question.
“Is it just me or has the morals in this country become more tight and rigid, I don’t remember a woman or a man having to ask permission to get married before?” he asked them. Both men sighed.
“It’s this new stuff that’s coming out of the Church,” Mike informed him. “They’re really getting stricter on women, saying their moral values are getting too loose and it’s dangerous for men to allow women too much freedom. It will wreck society and damage the family core.” Ben nodded.
“They’re even talking about banning Fey marriage in the Church,” he told Sean who looked shocked. “They say that most Fey men don’t have children so there’s no need for them to get married. And Fey women need men to get children so they’re really giving birth to bastards.” Sean shook his head.
“Those fucking priests don’t know what they’re talking about, hell most of them are Fey themselves,” he declared and both men nodded.
“They’re just a bunch of men who afraid of women having too much power so they’re trying to take it away from them before they get too much,” Sean said and both men nodded.
“What can we do?” Mike said. “It’s their religion; we can’t force people not to go to Church.” Sean nodded.
“What do the people in the Freedom Church say, do they say the same things?” he asked them. They both shrugged.
“We’ve never been to one of their Church services,” Ben admitted. Sean nodded.
“Maybe its time someone did,” he suggested. He went home and got the old people together and, of course, Annie raised a fuss but in the end she didn’t want to be left out of a trip to Jamestown, even if it was the dead of winter.
“You men are the biggest idiots in the world,” she fumed all the way to Jamestown despite the warm carriage and the even warmer tents. Sean laughed at her.
“Ah, lass, face it, you’re having a grand time,” he teased her and she made a face at him.
In Jamestown they checked into a nice inn close to the big Freedom Church on Jessup Street. Then on Sunday they joined a remarkable amount of people who crowded into it to hear the good Reverend Thomas to speak.
“There are enough people in here, they don’t need a heater,” Ryan retorted and laughed. Annie shushed him. She felt guilty about being in here; she’d always been a St. Charles Church person and going to another Church just felt wrong. Then the good Reverend began to speak and she changed her mind.
He talked about God’s love for his people and how to do good deeds for others and they will do good deeds for you. He said to love your enemies because Satan had delivered them down the wrong path and it was up to you to show them the way back to God. He said to children were a blessing from God and filled your home with love but never once did he say that it was a woman’s duty to have them and that they had to have as many as they could. He talked about marriage as being a partnership between two people in love, not just between a man and a woman like Father Zuker did. But most of all he talked about the joy of loving God and getting his love in return. There wasn’t a negative thing in the whole sermon. Even the songs they sang were joyful.
“Now that was very pleasant,” Sean remarked as they stood in the foyer and waited for the crowd to thin out. Annie was stunned.
“We’ve got to build a Freedom Church on the Ridge, Granddad, right away,” she demanded and he hugged her.
“I was just thinking the same thing, lass,” he told her.
They waited out the long cold winter and no one got sick and then they went back to Jamestown and talked with Reverend Thomas about building a nice big Freedom Church on O’Brien’s Ridge. Sean even offered to pay for building it and a very nice house for the minister and his family plus a salary until people started attending and supporting the Church themselves.
“You’re a very generous man, Mr. Donoghue, you must feel very strongly about bringing God’s message to the Ridge,” Reverend Thomas praised him. Sean shrugged.
“Your Church will be like a breath of fresh air to the people of the Ridge and they truly need it, Reverend, they truly need it,” he told him truthfully.
Sean and his family got permission from Mike to build a Church and they built a nice big one directly across from the St. Charles Church which was looking old and faded. The priest didn’t spend hardly any of their income on keeping the place up, they sent most of it back to Ennis for the Cardinal to get fat and rich.
Then they built a nice four bedroom house behind the Church for the minister and his family and planted a nice garden of vegetables and flowers and a covered walkway to the Church so they could walk to the Church even in the rain and the snow and not get wet. Everyone one in the Ridge talked for months about the new Church and why did the Donoghues build a new Church when they had the St. Charles Church, what was going on?
The minister, Reverend Charles Andrews and his wife Sara and their two children, seven year-old Charlie and four year-old Helen came to the Ridge on May fifteen and Sean and his entire family were on Main Street to welcome them. They were very pleased to see so many people; Sara had tears in her eyes.
“You’re all so very kind to welcome us like this,” she gushed and Lizzie hugged her.
“Welcome to O’Brien’s Ridge, Sara, I hope you’ll be very happy here,” she told her.
The next Sunday the Church was filled with Donoghues and of course Ken, Emily and his family and a few curious people. Mike and Ben and their families came to check out the new Reverend so the place was filled nicely. Not as many as Sean would have liked but it was the first service so he was happy with the turn out. Sara played the organ and everyone sang one of those joyful songs Annie had liked so much and the sound of it filtered over to the St. Charles Church.
“What is that racket, I can’t hear myself talk,” Father Zucker complained and ordered the doors shut which made it hot inside and his long sermon even longer. The Freedom Church was over with in half the time and everyone gathered outside to socialize and laugh and talk with the new minister and tell how much they had enjoyed his sermon.
When the people got out of the stuffy St. Charles service and saw the others were gone, they were furious. How dare they be finished already!
“It must not have been much of a service to finish that quickly,” someone muttered and they agreed. But some of them thought that maybe they would check it out next week, after all, it was Church and they hated to go anyway. Who cared what Church they went to as long as they got it over with and got out and got on with their day, they might as well get it over with quicker than the long boring service at St. Charles.
The following Sunday the Freedom Church was even more filled as word about the delightful new minister was spread and people flocked to hear his joyous words about God’s love and of course those desiring a shorter service sneaked over. And the Donoghue women had been reminded about the miracle of the Tansy flower and their seeds and gossiped to every woman they could. So when Sean passed out a small bouquet of Wild Blue Tansy flowers to all of the women with an innocent expression, they all giggled and thanked him. He winked at Lizzie and took his seat. Ryan grinned at him.
“Way to go, Granddad, those priests won’t know what hit them,” he whispered and Sean just smiled.
Father Zucker was furious as he looked around his Church and saw that he had lost more than half of his flock. He gave that half hell, fire and brimstone telling them that the others who