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

of the house was obliterated. The men all gasped again.
“Well done, men,” Sean shouted and his men beamed with pride and saluted him. Sean turned around and indicated that they should all go back inside the Church. Everyone was talking and whispering back and forth. Sean stood in front of them once again.
“Our Army has five Donoghue cannons just like the ones you just saw and I’ve still got two thousand rifles left from the ten thousand I’ve been handing out to all of the Ridge men and the valley men and all of the men all over the territories,” he informed them. “Men like you and me who are tired of living under Hamish rule and just want them to go back to Hamish where they belong. Now we can all sit around and talk about how much we hate the Hamish and we hate the high taxes and slavery and injustice until we’re all blue in the face,” Sean paused and looked over the sea of men. “But the time to act is coming very soon because pretty soon the Hamish are going to have rifles just like we have rifles and the advantage that we have because we’re the only one with rifles is going to be gone and it’s going to be much harder to get them out of our country. Now I’ve seen first hand what a bullet can do to a body and so has the Hamish and let me tell you they’re not going to want to face eight thousand men with rifles. They’re going to run back to Hamish as fast as they can and they’re not going to come back until they have rifles. And that will give us time to make hundreds more of these cannons and line the shore with them. So that when the Hamish come back with their rifles to take the country back, we can blow them out of the water, that will shock the shit out of them.” Sean stopped and everyone laughed.
“Thank you for you time, gentlemen,” Sean said and bowed. Everyone stood up and clapped. Henry patted him on his back.
“Very good demonstration, General,” he told him and the others beamed.
The delegates talked for a week and it was finally decided that they would draw up some kind of formal Declaration of Independence and everyone would sign it and they would send it to the Governor to send to his Majesty King William the Fourth asking him to remove his troops from Anamylia because they wished to become one country instead of six Territories united under a President, Henry Adams with a Congress to rule them which would be elected by the people of the people and for the people. John, who had the best penmanship, wrote the declaration on two parchment papers, one to send to Hamish and one for them to keep for their records. They also wrote amendments giving women some rights, lowering the age of marriage consent to eighteen and giving the Indians and all people, no matter what color equal rights. It was a very pretty document and Sean was proud to sign it a month later on June nineteenth seventeen oh one.
Immediately after signing it and sending it to the Hamish Governor, the hundred and ten delegates and the seven members of the committee which was now the President, Vice-President and the President’s cabinet, went into hiding. They knew the Hamish would put them on a hit list right away. Sean went home to the Ridge to give instructions to his family. He and his Army would be hanging out in nearby Lamanski Ridge while the delegates from Lamanski would hide out in his home. The Hamish were so dumb they would never look on another Ridge for another Ridge man, they would tear apart Adam’s Ridge looking for Tom Adam and Scott Hamilton but they would never guess that the family living in their house was the Chervek Dennis Ferguson they were looking for.
“For God’s sake whatever you do, Sean, don’t tell them you’re Sean Donoghue,” Sean said to old Sean who looked at him like he was crazy.
“Well who do I say that I am then?” he asked. Sean shrugged.
“Tell them your name is Peter or Paul, but if you tell them you’re Sean Donoghue, the Hamish are so stupid they’ll likely arrest and hang you thinking you’re me instead,” he told him. Sophia his wife looked appalled.
“The Hamish can’t be that stupid,” she protested. Sean just looked at her. She turned to her husband.
“From now on your name is Peter,” she decided. Sean grinned and kissed her. He turned to the old folks.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be stopping by to check up on you, the Hamish can’t camp out here on the Ridge, they’re going to much too busy running and hiding,” he said. Ryan hugged him.
“I wish I was young enough to come with you,” he murmured. Sean kissed him.
“Ah lad, I wish you were too, what an adventure that would have been,” he whispered and then he was gone. The two brothers sat on the porch and talked about how they would get rid of the Hamish. Annie snorted.
“You’re both old fools,” she announced. They ignored her like they always did; she was getting crankier as she got older. Seventy-five was not an improvement on her disposition.
Governor Earl Furbush took one look at the Declaration of Independence and frowned. He called to his aide.
“Wayne get in here and read this for me would you?” he said loudly and his aide, a young handsome man he was having an affair with rushed in. Earl smiled at the sight of him. Wayne took the document and read the title and then he glanced at the letter that came with it.
“This is a Declaration of Independence,” he announced. “And it’s being sent to you by President Henry Adams of Anamylia.” The Governor looked confused.
“Who the hell is that, Anamylia doesn’t have a, what the hell is a president?” he yelled. Then he yelled for Benjamin Baker his assistant governor and General Westinghouse and Admiral York. Several hours later the four men and several Counts read the document and the letter and had a good laugh.
“You’re not actually going to send that thing to His Majesty?” Count Bentley asked and waved his hand at the parchment sitting on the governor’s desk. Furbush shrugged.
“I suppose I must, I think these gentlemen are serious and I think they mean to hold us to the one year deadline,” he informed them. They all snickered.
“In one year I’ll have all of the men who signed that document in my prison and we can send them King William so he can hang them himself,” General Westinghouse predicted and then he added, “Especially that Sean Donoghue, I knew there was something shady about him the first time I saw him during the Blackeyes conflict.” All the men nodded.
“What are the chances that the army will finally have some rifles to put down these rebels?” Count Reynolds asked. The General smiled.
“I have been told that we will have them in the New Year so this little rebellion will be nothing, a hundred and seventeen people against the Hamish army is laughable,” he snorted and they all laughed. Outside the office Wayne looked at his fellow clerk and frowned.
“They can’t believe it’s just only a hundred and seventeen men can they?” he asked him and the other man shrugged.
“They’re all idiots, I don’t know how you can stand sleeping with him,” he told him. Wayne shrugged.
“I want that house and he gives me presents I can sell,” he said and they both laughed.
They even printed the list in the newspaper and first on the list was General Sean Donoghue. Second on the list was President Henry Adams. He and Henry had a big laugh about that.
“Well, you did steal their ten thousand rifles, I only want the whole country,” Henry remarked philosophically. Sean laughed.
“I made them look foolish twice, they hate me more, the worse thing you can do to a Hamish is show the world how stupid they really are,” he told him.
Sean figured out a clever way pass messages along to his president and congressional members. He put a Malweenah Indian with each of them and simply wrote the messages in Malweenah. Even if the message fell into Hamish hands there would be no way in hell they would be able to decipher it. The Ennish had been working with the Indians for years to make their spoken language a written one and Sean who loved languages had no trouble picking it up. And dying his hair white and growing a beard kept him from being recognized by the Hamish and he was free to travel around the territories, as long as he stayed away from barracks eight that is.
The first month Sean and his men hung out on Lamanski’s Ridge living in Chester Lamanski’s house while he was living in Sean’s house with the Annie. Danny and Ryan insisted on coming with him while he was hiding out, they didn’t want to miss any of the fun. When the Hamish army came up the Ridge to arrest Chester they found young Sean, Todd and Lonnie with three old men sitting on the porch in rocking chairs.
“We’re looking for Chester Lamanski,” the Hamish Captain yelled at Todd who was working in the fields. All young men came walking up as slowly as they could while the Hamish soldiers sat on their horses and fumed.
“Are any of you men Chester Lamanski?” the Captain yelled. Todd stared at him with amazement.
“Chester Lamanski is thirty-six years old, do any of us look thirty-six years old to you?” he asked him. The Captain sighed.
“Well, where is Chester and what are you doing in his house, who are you anyway?” he snapped.
“Chester took off when he heard the Hamish were going to arrest him, he said we could have his house,” he told the Captain and then he added, “I’m Jamie Johnson and that’s my Granddad Herman, wave hello, Herman,” Todd yelled to Sean who waved at the Hamish Captain. The Hamish soldiers laughed.
“I’m Jack Johnson and that’s my Granddad Hector, waved hello, Hector,” young Sean yelled to Danny who waved. The Hamish soldiers laughed again.
“I’m Joshua Johnson and that’s my Granddad Hiram, wave hello, Hiram,” Lonnie yelled and Ryan waved. The Captain sighed as the soldiers laughed.
“Are all you mountain men such idiots?” he snapped. The boys looked at one another.
“Not any more than usual I reckon,” Todd said oh-so-casually and the Captain snorted with disgust and turning his horse around gave the order to ride away.
“That Hamish Captain called us idiots, I guess I should be insulted by that,” Todd told Sean as he watched them ride away. Sean laughed and got up from his chair with remarkable ease for such an old man.
“I wonder how much of an idiot the Captain is for letting the number one man on his little arrest list sit on the porch and laugh at him,” he commented and they all laughed. Ryan patted him on his back.
“My Granddad is number one on the list,” he said proudly. Sean bent down and kissed him on his forehead.
“It’s going to be a long year if the Hamish are going to be this