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

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“If you’ve got anything with your name on it get it quickly, they’re going door to door and they’ll be here soon,” he told him. The man quickly ran into the other room and came back with some papers which he stuffed into a bag.
“My gold,” he said and rushed back into the room coming back with another bag. Sean took all the bags and they climbed out the bedroom window onto the roof. It was very slippery and the man started to slide. Sean picked him up and carried him over his shoulder.
“You’re very strong,” the man remarked and Sean just grinned. He climbed over the roof to the building next door and kept climbing until they got to the end. He put the man down gently and then unhooked the fire ladder. Then he picked him up again and climbed down the ladder. He put him down and together they walked out of the alley and onto the next street and back to the house where Sean lived. He found out the man’s name was Monty Trenton and he was the delegate from Northwest Territory and elected
Senator which was what they were calling the delegates. Sean left the Senator with his people and went back to work.
“Where the hell did you go, Peter, you know you’re not supposed to leave the tavern, you’ll have to work an extra hour to make up for it,” his boss grumbled when he got back. Sean shrugged.
“I had an important errand to run and I came back didn’t I?” he told him. The boss sighed. The man was the strongest man he had ever seen, he could lift a beer barrel all by himself and was a good worker and the men all loved him, so he’ll cut him a break this time.
“Well, don’t do it again,” he snapped at him. Sean just laughed.
“What do you mean you couldn’t find him?” General Westinghouse snapped at Major Buchanan who fidgeted.
“We searched every apartment on Franklin Street, we did find one that looked abandoned and the landlord assured us that he had rented it to a gentleman from St. Charles who was in Jamestown on business, but no one was home when we searched it,” he informed the General. The governor sighed.
“That’s the man and somehow someone blabbed and they found out we were on to him and he got away,” he snapped. Count Bentley appeared nervous. He didn’t tell anyone did he, no he only mentioned it at breakfast and the only one there was his dear old mother and she wouldn’t have told a soul. He spoke up.
“It’s been six months and you idiots can’t manage to find a hundred and seventeen men in six territories, how hard can it be?” he said calmly. The General glared at him.
“First, its five Territories, the Ennish won’t let us search Andalusia and for all we know they’re all hiding there the cowards,” he said, wiping his nose with his hankie. “And the Territories are very large and cover a great deal of forest and mountains. Most of these men grew up on these mountains and are capable of living in caves for God’s sake. I say we stop fooling around with the men and start taking the wives and the children hostage and force the men to turn themselves in exchange for them. Or we’ll hang the women and children in their place!” he yelled.
“The people won’t stand for that you fool,” the Governor shouted. “This is not Hamish, you can’t get away with that here,” he declared. The General stood up and walked over to Furbush’s desk. He put his hands down on it and peered down at the man.
“I’m the Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s Army, don’t you dare tell me what or what not I can get away with, you pompous fool,” he said quite calmly. The Governor was quite scared. He nodded.
The General and the Admiral both agreed; it was time to stop playing with these Anamylians and teach them a lesson they would learn about the Hamish once and for all. They quickly wrote out arrest warrants for all of the wives and children of all of the so-called Congressional members and the grandfather of Sean Donoghue. He was the only one they knew of him, everyone else was back in Topangan.
“Aren’t there a lot of Donoghues on O’Brien’s Ridge?” Major Buchanan asked his Captain who shrugged.
“I don’t think they’re related to General Donoghue,” he told him. The Major frowned.
“Well, they sound like they’re related, pick up a few of them too,” he ordered and the soldiers hurried off.
When the people heard of the arrests they were shocked and appalled. A large number of them marched to the Governor’s office and protested. The Governor looked out his window and sighed.
“I told you they’d be unhappy,” he told the General who just smiled.
“Who cares, just wait until the newspaper comes out and they read the news, then those cowardly bastards will start turning themselves in and this whole mess will soon be over,” he said smugly. Outside the office the two secretaries looked at each other and sighed.
When the rebels got the paper and read the headline: Rebels turn yourselves in or we will hang you wives and children in your place, they were furious. When Sean read the names Donoghue, Douglas, Lizzie, Douglas Junior, Megan, Shannon, Benjamin, Roderick and Carla, he was furious.
“What did those bastards do? Just go to the Ridge and grab the first Donoghue family they found?” he asked Ryan and Danny with bewilderment. They looked equally confused. Danny shrugged.
“If you go up the slope, Doug’s house would be the first Donoghue house you would get to,” he reasoned.
Sean called all the delegates to the Church where they had all met before for the cannon demonstration.
“This is really dangerous, all of us meeting like this,” Neil said with a worried look on his face. Sean shrugged.
“We’ve got to meet if we’re going to figure out what to do next,” he reasoned. Everyone was angry. Some wanted to go to war, some wanted to kill every Hamish soldier they saw and some wanted to get the cannons and blow the Governor up. No one wanted to turn themselves in. President Henry Adams faced the Congress.
“I saw that this act of aggression means that the Hamish has declared war on us and we should declare war on them,” he announced in a loud firm voice. Every man stood up and cheered. Henry turned to Sean.
“General Donoghue, what is our next course of action?” he asked him. Sean marched to the front of the stage.
“Only the Hamish would be stupid enough to start a war in the middle of winter,” he remarked casually and they all laughed. Then he continued. “We now have twelve cannons and we will use them to drive the Hamish Army to the sea and from there back to Hamish where they belong.” Every one cheered.
“It may be the dead of winter but we are mountain people and we are used to the cold and the snow,” he informed them. “The Hamish are not, they are sissies and little girls and used to standing around nice fires and inside buildings so it’s going to be easy to pick them off. Especially with the cannons as we fire on their Forts and buildings where they gather. One cannonball up the arse and they’ll come running out into our rifles and the battle will be over in a hot minute. Its going to a very cold but very short war,” he assured them.
Three of the cannons stayed in Maryland, three went to Pembroke and two each went to the other three territories. Sean instructed all of the Senators to put their men in black coats or cloaks and sent men to all the Ridges to round up his army. The women were busy loading up supplies for the men and lots of Peanja wood for the fires. Snowshoes were made and lots of blankets were gathered. Sean made a few of his men Captains because he trusted they would follow his orders. No one seemed to mind that. When the other Ridges reported their Ridge became overrun with men and supplies but no one seemed to mind that either.


Chapter Three - Viva L'Revolution

Sean left the Ridge with three cannons and five thousand men. Two thousand and a cannon were sent to take the fort at Portsmyth under the leadership of Ivan Ferguson, the Chervek land grant holder, he knew the man was up to the challenge. He led the rest to Jamestown to take the Fort there and the Capital. Henry, John and the other members of the Presidential Party rode with him.
“I think we selected the right man for the job, don’t you John?” Henry murmured to his Vice-President as they rode protected on all four sides by black jacketed Ridge men, all wearing big grins and carrying rifles, swords and knives. John nodded.
“The Hamish aren’t going to know what’s happening,” he said and grinned.
The group made Jamestown the morning of February seventh, the day all hell should be breaking out all over the five Territories and Sean couldn’t have been happier. He sent a thousand men under the leadership of Chester Lamanski and a cannon to take the Fort at the Naval Base and he sent a thousand men to surround the town. Then he and a thousand men rode through the streets towards the Governor’s office where he knew all the Counts and important Hamish Senior Officers had their offices. He had a little surprise just for them.
“Oh, my God, we’re being invaded!” the citizens of Jamestown screamed and ran for their homes. Sean’s soldiers were very polite in telling them to get off the streets and return home until the fighting was over, they didn’t want the Hamish using anyone as hostages. Black-jacketed soldiers in groups of twenty stood at every street corner armed with rifles just waiting for a chance to fire them.
Sean and five hundred men surrounded the Governor’s office. He aimed his cannon and gave the order to fire.
“Fire the cannon, Captain Donoghue,” Sean shouted. Young Sean beamed at him.
“Firing the cannon, General,” he shouted back and lit the fuse. The soldiers stood back and the cannon exploded, tearing an enormous hole through the huge wooden gates of the Governor’s stately building and going through to the building itself and causing damage. Inside, the whole building shook with the impact. Governor Furbush looked at General