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

switch off and then flipped another switch and cool air began to come out of it. Sean gasped.
“Its’ also a room air cooler,” Pierre declared and Sean looked at the top of the heater when a knob could be turned to make the air cooler or warmer.
“My God, whoever invented this is going to be a millionaire,” he said. Pierre nodded.
“I have a thousand of them, how many do you want?” he asked. Sean grinned.
“How much are they selling for?” he asked. The Captain grinned.
“Fifty gilders, for you sixty, for the rest of Anamylia, seventy-five, I intend to get rich selling these,” he said and they both laughed. Sean bought three hundred at the seventy-five gilder price, enough for everyone in his valley to have at least four or five. He was going to keep ten for himself and keep his house nice and warm in the winter and nice and cool in the summer. This was the best thing to come out of Ennis yet and he paid full price because he didn’t want his friend to lose out on anything and he wanted so many of them. Pierre also had little boxes that told the time called clocks that could be hung on the wall or square boxes that could stand on tables or desktops. Some were very pretty and had nice designs.
Along with the air/heaters and clocks Sean bought coffee, tea, sugar and all the other things they needed for the winter and a general store. John Stone who was a descendant of Megan his daughter had moved to the valley and was going to build one in the spring. Sean had told him when he came that he would help him get one started so every trip he made to the city, he figured he’d buy stuff for the store and stock up.
“I’m glad you’re home, Sean, Julie’s been really sick while you’ve been gone,” Ryan greeted him at the door when he returned with the boats. Sean frowned. It was too soon for another baby. Kalin was only a ten months old. He went in to the bedroom where his wife was lying down.
“You’re back, I’m so happy,” she gushed when she saw him. Sean hugged her.
“Are you alright, Ryan says you were sick?” he asked. She laughed.
“I told him it was nothing, we’re going to have another baby,” Julie announced and threw her arms around his neck. “Say you’re happy. I know you wanted to wait two years but I couldn’t wait, I wanted to have one now.” Sean shook his head.
“Of course I’m happy, silly goose,” he teased her and kissed her. “I just want you and the baby to be safe, that’s all,” he told her and she smiled. She got up and he went out to help unload the boats shaking away the uneasy feeling he had. She was a healthy woman and Kalin was perfect. Maggie had had two babies in two years, there was no reason Julie wouldn’t be any different.
Everyone loved the room heaters and laughed at all the wood they had chopped but agreed that a nice fire in the fireplace was very romantic. And they all loved the air cooling part.
“Oh, man, I’m never going to leave my house in the summer,” Young Sean declared and everyone laughed.
“You and your family will starve real quickly that way,” Todd quipped and everyone laughed again.
“What will the Ennis think of next?” someone remarked and Sean shrugged.
“Next they’re going to replace our horses with something more efficient,” he predicted and they all laughed.
“Well, I wish they would invent something to make plowing more efficient,” Lonnie said and all the men nodded.
Now that they were all ready for winter and it was almost upon them Sean was free to begin exploring the mountains around them. He took off on his own mostly, occasional with Young Sean, Todd or Lonnie. All the men were searching around, trying to get the feel of their new home and looking out for any new dangers. They knew what was to the east of them and to the north and to the south was the great swamp but what enemy lived to the west?
Sean went exploring beside the waterfall one day and found worm-root growing which was a good thing in case they ever got a case of the Spotted Plague. As he was staring at the rushing water Sean thought he could see something dark behind it so curious he stood very close to the wall of the mountain and slid past the water. It hit the air around him but none of it touched him, he was walking behind the waterfall. The roar of the water echoed quietly in his ears and when he reached the middle of the falls he came to a ledge and a cave entrance. Sean grinned. He had discovered a cave behind the waterfall.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Sean said aloud as he glanced around the cave, it was a big one, about forty feet long, forty feet wide and forty feet high and there were three tunnels that the water had bore into the rock. Sean took the left one and walked down it. It was forty feet high in the tunnel at first and then went down to about ten feet and the tunnel got darker. Sean turned on his glow light and it pierced the darkness. When he came to a fork he went left again and then left again, the tunnel seemed to go on and on into the mountain. Sean decided to stop and dig. He took the spade he carried in his pack for digging up plants and herbs and got to his knees and began to dig. He only dug for about three or four minutes when his spade hit something that clinked like the emeralds had back in Topanga.
Sean automatically thought emeralds or diamonds, either one would be fantastic. He dropped his spade and felt around with his fingers and pulled out a whitish chalky stone which crumbled in his fingers.
“What in the world is this?” he whispered. This white crumbly stuff didn’t make the clink he had heard. He felt it with his fingers and the white stuff fell away to reveal a small purple rock that looked like an uncut emerald but smaller. Sean looked at it confused as hell until it dawned on him that this rock looked exactly like the purple power crystal that was in his cold box. And in his ice box and everything else he bought from Ennis. He looked at the glow light and wanted to take it apart and compare the two crystals but then realized that would leave him in the dark.
So instead Sean dug until he found more chalky white stuff and felt around for more purple crystals and sure enough he found a lot of them floating around in the chalk. He was so excited he could barely contain himself. This was much better than gold, diamonds or emeralds or all the three combined.
Sean filled a bag half way with crystals and then kicked the dirt away and followed the route he had come to return to the cave entrance. Then he went home. He decided not to tell anyone until he compared and checked the crystals out. Julie greeted him at the door and made a face when she saw him.
“You’ve been digging in the dirt again,” she teased him. Sean grinned and made to hug her. She squealed and backed up. Kalin laughed and Sean picked him up instead.
“Sean, you’re going to get the baby filthy,” she protested and held out her hands. Sean kissed the baby and handed him over. Kalin cried in protest and Sean grabbed him back.
“I’ll go and change my clothes, come with me, darling,” he cooed to his son who laughed. Ryan and Danny who were sitting in their chairs in the front room grinned.
“That boy’s a happy baby,” Danny said and Ryan nodded.
“My Sam was like that, he came out laughing and hasn’t stopped since,” he told his brother. They talked about their children until Sean came back with his and then it was dinner time.
Sally and Bill sat the platters on the table and they all sat down. Conversation was mild, what they all did that day, the women sewed new curtains.
“I don’t know how we did it before sewing machine,” Sally said, her eyes sparkling. “We did curtains for the kitchen and front room in just five hours.” All the men smiled. Julie was quite pleased with herself.
“We’re going to do the bedrooms tomorrow, starting with your room,” she said looking at the two brothers who frowned.
“What’s wrong with the curtains we have, we like them, we don’t want new ones,” Danny told her. Julie pouted and Sean wondered briefly how he ever thought she was a strong woman; she and her grandmother had sure pulled the wool over his eyes. But she was a good woman and a good wife and mother so he wasn’t unhappy with his marriage. But still he wouldn’t have married her if he had known she was the kind of woman who pouted to get her way. He could see Ryan watching her and then looking at him and knew what he was thinking. He looked at the lad and shrugged. Ryan grinned.
“Okay, lass, we’d love new curtains, wouldn’t we Ryan?” Danny gave in and Ryan nodded. Julie smiled and everyone was happy. Sean picked up a spoon and gave his son a big spoonful of mashed potatoes and gravy, another happy meal at the Donoghues.
After everyone had gone to sleep, Sean eased out of bed and went into the kitchen. Julie never noticed when he left the bed. Unlike Maggie and Bobby who had liked to sleep with their heads on his chest she slept all curled up on her side of the bed. He opened the bag of purple crystals and put the glow light on the table.
“What are you up to, Granddad?” Ryan asked from the doorway. Sean looked up.
“What’s the matter, can’t you sleep?” he asked, worry in his voice. Ryan shrugged.
“I had a late nap this afternoon and I just got up to pee,” he informed him and sat down. He waved his hand at the bag. “What’s that?” he asked. Sean opened it wider. Ryan’s eyes got big. “Are those what I think they are?” he asked and picked one up. Sean shrugged.
“I think so, that’s what I’m looking to figure out,” he told him and took apart the light to expose the little box that held the crystal. It was a tiny one, barely bigger than the eraser on a pencil. Sean sighed.
“I don’t think I’ve got one this small,” he said. They searched through the crystals but they all were too big and wouldn’t fit in the box. Then Sean had an idea. He went and dug out his emerald cutting tools. Then he took a small crystal and very carefully cut it in half. Ryan watched in wonder.
“I’ve always wondered how you did that,” he said. Sean grinned.
“I’ve done thousands of emeralds lad, one little crystal shouldn’t be too hard,