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

them twenty thousand gilders to help with their support. The priests loved him for that. Then they returned the cannons and men and thanked everyone for their use. The men really enjoyed being out in the field and getting to fire them at an enemy again and had stories to brag to all their friends. Sean stopped by to see Henry and tell them how he was taking the valley and they laughed.
“Go ahead, you deserve something for all you’ve done for your country,” Henry said and shook his hand.
Then Sean and his men returned to the Ridge and informed everyone there that the Donoghues were leaving the Ridge and moving a week away to Donoghue Valley and the town of Sweetwater. Mike and Ben were sad to see him go, they really liked the young man but they understood when he complained about the Ridge getting crowded. They were both surprised when most of the Ridge left with Sean. They had expected most of his family to go with him of course, but all of the Malweenahs, the Topangans and most of the men who had fought with him in both wars followed their General into the wilderness.
Sean took twenty wagons filled with supplies and furniture with him to the valley. He also took his grandsons Danny and Ryan. The two old men swore they were too old to run off to some god-forsaken Indian valley, he should just leave them back on the Ridge to die, but he just laughed and put them in their carriage and took them up the trail. Men with axes and mules to tear up the stumps widened the trail as they followed it to the valley. And they leveled it off as they went making a nice wide road.
“This is the most beautiful spot in the world, Granddad,” Ryan exclaimed as the three men stood on the rise over-looking Donoghue Valley. Sean nodded and kissed them both.
“See why I didn’t leave you back on the Ridge, look at those mountains,” he gushed. “They’re as high as the Fairie Mountains back where I grew up. We’re going to be very happy here, I can tell.” Ryan grinned and kissed him full on the lips.
“Ah, Granddad, they finally made a mountain high enough for you,” he teased. They went down to the valley.
For the whole first month they cleaned up the mess that they had made of the Indian houses. They found lots of pretty pottery, bowls and plates and things they could use and they women all gushed over them. These they stacked up on one side. What they didn’t gush over was the human heads, dried hearts and other disgusting evil things they found hanging in the pretty houses which they now decided they wanted no part of so they men tore them all down.
Sean knew they would have to use the nice square gray and white rocks in the building of their own houses so to appease the women, he and the other men washed the rocks in the river to ‘cleanse’ them of their evilness. This made the women happy and the men grumble.
“This is all a bunch of bull you know, Granddad,” Todd snorted as he climbed out of the river with another giant rock. All the men grumbled. Sean grinned at them.
“If it makes you wife sleep better in her new house it’s worth the trouble,” he told them. Young Sean grinned.
“Women can be the smartest creatures yet at the same time they can be the most foolish people on the planet,” he said wisely. Every man nodded. Sean grinned again.
“I know one thing,” he said. “When a woman makes up her mind about something, no matter how stupid or foolish it sounds to you she isn’t going to change it no matter what you say, so keep on washing the rocks, boys.”
Sean built a beautiful seven-bedroom mini-Chateau for his wife and family. It had three bedrooms downstairs, one for the baby, one for the brothers to share and one for him and his wife. There were four bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs as well as a sitting room and a playroom for the children to play or study in. Downstairs was the kitchen, pantry, front room, study, sewing room and two bathrooms. Plus a music room for the piano they had dragged over the trail. Now all they had to find was a person who could tune it.
The barn was built out of stone too with a log roof. The stairs in the house were wood and the shutters and he brought glass from Portsmyth for all the houses, carrying it wagons stuffed with straw so the thick glass wouldn’t break. It would be a pain to take so long to travel to Portsmyth but he figured on building a boat and going by river, that might be shorter.
It took them all summer to build their houses and barns and by fall harvest they only had fall crops to bring in. Sean took a bunch of wagons to Portsmyth and found a Captain willing to make the trip by river and they found the valley in only two days, so by river, the trip was shorter. That made him more determined to build a boat.
Game was plentiful in the valley and they butchered two pigs and a head of cattle down by the river. Todd and Lonnie helped him so he split the meat with them.
“This is a big cow, Granddad,” Todd said as Sean led the cow out to the spot they picked out. Sean nodded.
“He looks pretty tasty to me,” he remarked as he picked up the big sledge hammer. All three men bowed their heads as Sean said a prayer. Then he lifted the hammer high in the air, brought it down quickly and the cow fell to the ground, it was dead.
“That was a good blow,” Lonnie said with admiration. Sean grinned.
“I’ve done this a few times,” he teased them and they laughed. They quickly chopped of its head and legs and gutted it and skinned it and stretched out the hide. Then they rolled the barrels over and began to expertly cut it up using their very sharp hunting knives. While they worked they talked about the coming winter and chopping woods and Lonnie had spied some apples trees and he wanted to spend the next day picking apples because he really liked apples. They were so busy they didn’t see the enormous black bear until they heard him growl. Then they looked up. Lonnie was the first to speak.
“Oh, he’s a big one, what do you think, thirteen hundred pounds, Granddad?” he asked casually and looked around for his rifle which was leaning against a tree too far away to be useful, so he got a better grip of his knife. Sean reached down and picked up the sledge hammer.
“I’d say more like fifteen hundred lad,” he replied just as casually. Todd nodded.
“Which one of us gets to kill it?” he asked and picked up his sword which he had dropped to the ground next to them. Lonnie remembered his and his eyes lit up. He walked casually over a few steps and picked it up. The bear which was now fifty feet away watched all three men as if he was deciding which one to attack first.
“Why don’t we let the bear decide,” Lonnie said and they all shrugged, that sounded reasonable to them. The bear gave a fierce roar and stood up on its back legs and showed its sharp fangs. The men grinned.
“Ah, lads, I think he’s angry, we’re not scared of him and it makes him mad,” Sean said in a teasing tone. All three laughed. The bear went down on all fours and charged Sean. The two men looked disappointed as he smacked the bear in the head with the sledge hammer and it fell to the ground with a loud thump. They rushed over and Lonnie kicked it gently with his foot.
“I think its dead,” he stated and Todd lifted a leg up and dropped it. It fell right to the ground.
“Oh, yeah, it’s dead,” he declared. Then he looked at Sean. “You’re going to share aren’t you because you know how much I love bear meat.” Sean laughed and nodded. The other men grinned and began to dress the bear. Sean went back to cutting up the cow. Oh, yes he thought to himself, those cannibals would have had a time on their hands if a boat load of Ridge boys had of washed up on their beach. And he could just picture what would have happened if three Hamish Counts and their sons were standing by a river and a big black bear had walked over to them. He would have eaten the one who ran the slowest while the others were screaming and running around. Sean remembered another bear attack in a field in Hamish and Sir William and the odious Richard betting on which poor peasant the bear killed. These Ridge boys would have made those two bastards pee their pants with fear.
The next day they picked apples, lots and lots of apples and peaches. And then they chopped wood and then Sean and a few men made a trip into Portsmyth to see what they could see and found the Mermaid in the harbor. Sean grinned and rushed aboard.
“Pierre, how wonderful to see you my old friend,” he said and hugged him. Pierre kissed on the lips and all the men smiled.
“General Donoghue, the famous rebel,” Pierre teased him. Sean laughed.
“Did you get General Westinghouse and all of his Senior Officers home safely?” he asked him. Pierre made a face.
“Did you know they tried to stiff me on their passage?” he told him. Sean grinned.
“I expected them to try, what did you do?” he asked as they sipped whiskey. Pierre grinned.
“I reminded them of the trade agreement between Ennis and Hamish and asked if they wanted to break it for a measly six thousand gilders,” he said. Both men laughed. Then Pierre looked at him.
“I hear that you have fought a new war against some rather fierce Indians and now have a whole new valley named after you,” he informed him rather smugly. Sean grinned.
“Where do you get your gossip?” he teased. Pierre grinned.
“So it’s true, you have a valley now?” he asked. Sean spent the next few hours telling him all about the war and his new home in the valley and his new son of course. Pierre had a new son also and had named him Armand after his father. Sean wondered if he would be a sea Captain too.
“I have something new to show you. We Ennis are so clever,” Pierre declared and took him down to the hold.
“What is it? Sean asked as he stared at the large square box his friend had shown him. Pierre grinned and flipped a switch on the top of the box. Immediately warm air began to come out of the front of the box where a fan blew it out. Sean was very impressed.
“It’s a room heater and they’re all the rage, no more chopping wood,” Pierre announced. Sean grinned. Then Pierre did another thing, he flipped the