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

story for years, what kind of fool do they think we are to believe such rubbish,” he said and took a sip of his coffee. Yet another corporal came in the tent and saluted. The Major glared at him.
“Don’t tell me, he bought it from some man off a wagon,” he sneered. The corporal looked uncomfortable and shook his head.
“Actually no, Sir,” he replied and the two officers sat up and looked interested. The corporal continued. “The man I spoke with said he bought three hundred rifles off a sea Captain in sixteen ninety-six, three months before the Hamish starting taxing them so he didn’t have to pay any tax on them. He seemed quite proud of that, Sir, and all of his men laughed,” he informed them. The General glared at him.
“What was this man’s name?” he snapped. The corporal fidgeted.
“His name was Sean Donoghue and he is from O’Brien’s Ridge,” he answered, not bothering to tell them that there was something about the tall man, a gleam in those dark, green eyes that had scared him to death and made him wish his father had decided to send him to the university instead of the army like his brother George. He was happy when the Major dismissed him and he could leave the tent. Being around officers made him uncomfortable.
“These damned Anamylians always whining about the taxes, just imagine how they would like it if there were no taxes to pay the army or the navy and the damned savages came into the cities and attacked them. Where would they be then?” the General snapped. The Major gazed out the tent to where the Ridge men sat around their fires with all their rifles and thought that perhaps thought perhaps they wouldn’t be so bad off after all. Then he dismissed the thought and went back to his paperwork.
They sat around the tent city for a week and then just as they thought they were going to run out of food, the army finally moved out. Sean had made a run into Pembroke for additional supplies so the Ridge men were well supplied. There were almost two thousand of them, all of them armed with rifles, bullets, swords and knives. All the army had were swords and knives but there were three thousand of them, plus another three thousand men from the other four territories. But they didn’t know how many Blackeyes they were going up against.
General Westinghouse divided the Ridge men into four groups because they were the only men with rifles. Sean and his group were under the leadership of Major Buchanan and went to the southern corner of the Blackeyes territory. They were two thousand men strong and he further divided them into four groups of five hundred to form four lines to march them in. Sean thought this awful silly and spread his group out so they wouldn’t be such good targets.
“You men, spread out, riding in a line like this, you can just get picked off one by one,” he informed them and they looked around at one another and agreed. At least the Ridge men did and instantly spread out over the trails. The soldiers looked confused and the other men looked at Major Buchanan who was riding with them for orders. The Major looked around and frowned.
“Hey, you, why are your men leaving the formation?” he asked loudly. Sean rode up to him.
“Why don’t you shout loudly, Major, I don’t think the Indians hiding in ambush heard you,” he retorted and some of the soldiers laughed. The Major was not amused.
“Get your men back into formation, who the hell are you?” he demanded. Sean frowned at him.
“You’re fighting Indians here, Major, not another army who rides in formation, the Blackeyes aren’t going to care if you’re neat and tidy and in formation, in fact they’ll like picking you off one by one,” he explained. “Spread your men out and look for the enemy, they could be anyway, even the trees, for God’s sake, think like an Indian not a white man,” he snapped and turned to the soldiers behind the Major.
“Spread your men out unless you want them killed, Captain,” he warned him. Then Sean rode back to his men and they spread out further. Sean told his men to watch in the trees also and they nodded. The other men following looked at the Ridge men and looked at the soldiers all neat in a row and spread out like the Ridge men. The soldiers looked at the Major who ordered them to stay in line, he yelled at them at the top of his lungs.
At that exact moment Sean noticed movement in the trees where they shouldn’t be movement. He lifted his rifle and shouted to his men.
“They’re in the trees men, shoot in the trees!” And then all hell broke loose as he took aim at an Indian was aiming a bow and arrow and fired his rifle. The Indian fell to the ground and other rifles fired. Sean quickly reloaded and took aim again. The Indians shouted and yelled and swung on vines at the soldiers and everyone was struggling for their lives.
Sean quickly loaded and fired again and kept doing so until a Blackeyes swung at him and he pulled his knife and killed him. The movement of him hitting Sean threw him from Sir William and Sean rolled on the ground and to his feet as quickly as he could. He picked up his rifle and loaded it and took aim at an Indian and fired. The Blackeyes went down. Then two were upon him and he pulled his sword out. A good swing took the head off of one and a good jab took care of the other. He saw one heading for Todd who was already fighting one, so Sean raced and headed him off.
Then as quickly as it happened it was over. Indians were lying on the ground, blood was all over, and men were moaning and groaning. Sean quickly took inventory of his family and found them all alive and well, not a scratch.
“If any of you take an ear, I’ll disown you,” he told them and they all frowned.
“God, Granddad, you don’t even have to say that,” Todd was insulted he would even think that of them. Sean grinned.
“I’m sorry, lads, I don’t know what came over me,” he apologized. Lonnie hugged him.
“We know you’re just all worried about us,” he said and kissed him full on the lips. The other men all patted him on his back and went to help the wounded.
The soldiers fared the worse of everyone. Riding in single file, all nice and neat like they had, the Indians had just aimed their arrows and let go. A lot of them were wounded. Sean had brought plenty of green leaves with him and they really needed them. Luckily for the Major he had found a nice safe spot to hide during the battle. They found him hiding behind a big rock when the battle was over.
“Here he is, the coward’s been hiding behind this big rock,” Scott Donoghue remarked casually as he helped Major Buchanan to his feet. The Major brushed off his clothes in an effort to retain his dignity.
“Is it over then?” he asked casually as he walked back towards his men. Sean looked at his grandson and grinned. All the Ridge men grinned. None of them had even been scratched.
“Of course your men weren’t hurt, they had rifles, all my men had were swords,” the Major yelled at Sean as they rode back to camp. Sean shrugged.
“I killed more Indians with my sword and my knife than I did with my rifle, Major,” he informed him. “The only reason a lot of your men were wounded was because they were riding in formation, I warned you about that but you didn’t listen. If it’s all the same to you; me and my Ridge men would prefer not to ride with you and your soldiers any more. You’re stupid and you’re going to get us killed trying to protect you.”
“You’ll ride with whom I tell you to ride with, Mr. Donoghue, is that clear,” Major Buchanan snapped at him and Sean sighed.
“The Hamish Major is going to get us killed for sure,” he told his men and they all agreed. Mike O’Brien went to the General to complain and was informed that Major Buchanan was a fine officer and the Ridge men were lucky to have him.
“The Major is a coward who hid behind a big rock until the battle was over General, all of the men saw him do that,” Mike told him. The General was shocked.
“How dare you slander a fine man like that, get out of my tent!” he ordered. Mike went back and said they were stuck with the idiot. Sean suggested that perhaps they should carry a big rock for the Major to hide behind. Everyone got a big laugh over that. They started to call the Major, Major Rochanan instead of Buchanan. When he found out about that he was furious.
“Those mountain men are barbarians, I was knocked off my horse by an Indian and was unconscious when they found me,” he insisted. The General patted him on the back.
“Those bastards are fools not to appreciate what a fine soldier you are, Steve,” he said.
The next day they left camp and headed south again with new soldiers to replace the old ones who had been wounded. The old ones watched Sean and his men and decided to do what they did despite the Major’s orders. They weren’t going to die just because their senior officer was a coward, they didn’t buy that unconscious story at all, they all saw him run behind that rock and hide.
Late in the afternoon they came upon a Blackeyes village that appeared to be deserted. The Major wanted to enter it and burn it down. Sean wanted to send men to surround it and approach it from all sides.
“You are my men you will do as I say,” Major Buchanan yelled. Sean sighed.
“Why don’t you yell a little louder and the Blackeyes hiding in the village might hear you clearer?” he suggested and his men laughed. Some soldiers looked at the village and shifted in their saddles.
“There are no Indians in that village, it’s been deserted,” the Major insisted. Sean shook his head.
“We don’t know that, Major; it could be a trap,” he informed him. “If we go riding into that village then we would be the ones surrounding on all sides by the enemy. But if we surround the village, then we’re the ones surrounding the enemy, we’ll have the advantage.” Everyone nodded; they thought it a good idea. The Major shook his head.
“That’s a stupid idea and a complete waste of time, I’m in charge, we’ll do it my way,” he said and ordered them to follow him. His soldiers didn’t like it but they began to follow him. Sean ordered some of his men to go right and some to go left so at least they would have three sides covered.
“This idiot is going to get his men killed,” he told Todd as they rode to the left. Todd nodded.