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

she threw her head back and laughed.
“Just wait, darling, I’m not through yet,” he bragged. She giggled.
“What are you going to invent next?” she teased. He shrugged.
“I’ll figure it out,” he promised.
Sean turned over production of the plowers to his great-great-grandsons Freddie and Frankie Donoghue, they were the ones most interested in them and by the following spring every man in the valley had one for the spring planting. They accomplished that is days instead of weeks and were all amazed at how easy it was. A big field of wheat only took hours to plant instead of a week.
“Granddad, this is the best invention ever,” Young Sean insisted. Sean ruffled his hair.
“Come on up to the workshop, lad, and see what I’m working on now before you say that,” he offered and the three men grinned and followed him. Sean had a new barn which they all called his workshop where he fiddled with parts and tools and stuff. His two older boys spent a lot of time in there with him helping him play around with things and he had an area blocked off where they could safely play.
“What in the world do you call that, Granddad?” Todd asked, his dark, green eyes gleaming as the three men approached Sean’s latest invention, what he was calling a motorbike. They eyed the two-wheeled contraption with interest and he could tell they were dieing to sit on it and take a spin.
“I call it a motorbike and I got the idea from riding on the plower and of course from riding the horses,” Sean informed them and they all nodded, they could see that. Sean was ready for a test drive and he wheeled it outside and climbed onto it. All three men watched with excitement.
“How does it work?” Todd, the reasonable asked. Sean pointed out the features of the bike.
“You steer it with the front wheel like this,” he showed them how it moved and they all nodded.
“This lever here, you grip and move in a circle and the back wheel spins to move the bike,” Sean demonstrated and the motorbike moved up several inches. “If you want to go faster, you turn it more and if you want to slow down, you turn it the other way,” he said and showed them.
“That is so cool,” Young Sean’s voice was filled with awe. Sean had even put little foot braces to put his feet on.
“How do you stop it?” Lonnie asked; a frown on his face. Sean grinned at them.
“Now stopping was a bit of a problem,” he admitted. “I tried putting the brakes, that’s what I call the stopping things, like the brakes on a wagon, on just the back wheel, like the plower. But on the bike, you can’t do that, the bike will lock up and the front wheel leaves the ground and you lose control and fall down,” he explained and they all nodded. A horse did the same thing. If it stopped only using its back legs, the front ones lifted in the air and the rider would fall off.
“So I put the brakes on the front but that didn’t work either, then the damned thing rolled over and that wasn’t much fun at all,” Sean said and they all laughed. “So I had to put the brakes on both wheels and you have to be real careful to press on the brakes levers a little at the same time to get the bike to stop slowly, you don’t want to stop real fast or you’ll tip over,” he warned them. Then while they watched with fascination, Sean slowly sped up and took off down the road.
“Oh, man, I’ve got to get me one of those,” Young Sean murmured and they all nodded. Every young man who saw Sean riding his new motorbike said the same thing and soon another factory was built and another foundry to meet the demand. Young Sean wanted to take over the manufacturing of the motorbike but Sean shook his head and turned it over to Chris and Billy Donoghue instead.
“I’ve got something even better for you, Lonnie and Todd, lad, trust me and I’ll let you help me with the prototype,” he promised and Young Sean nodded and trusted him, after all, he was his granddad and he would never steer him wrong.
When they had a hundred motorbikes and a hundred plowers the next year, they took them into Jamestown and demonstrated them and sold them instantly. People were stunned at the brilliance of Donoghue’s new inventions and the orders poured in. Several were shipped to Hamish, Ennis and Topanga and Sean’s men went with them to open factories there. Every man in the valley had a piece of the action and they were all going to be rich. People flocked to the valley to work in the new factories and be a part of the excitement. Almost overnight the population quad-tripled to ten thousand and when copper was found with the steel, everyone cheered, the former Keetik valley was the place to be.
Sean didn’t like the crowded valley where his house was so he and his family built new larger mansions higher on the mountainside over-looking the valley below. Claire was impressed by the fact that these rich men got together and built their new houses themselves. Sean laughed at her.
“We know what we want to live in and we can do a better job than anyone else can, why wouldn’t we do it ourselves, lass?” he asked her in a teasing tone and grabbed her to kiss her. All the boys laughed. He stuck his tongue out at them and of course they returned the gesture. She frowned at him.
“Sean, you’re teaching them bad habits, stop that,” he slapped his arm and he grinned.
“Well, someone’s got to teach them bad habits,” he reasoned and she groaned while Kalin and Bobby giggled.
“You’re as bad as a little boy yourself,” she teased him and he picked up the twins who were now two and the most adorable boys in the world in his arms and kissed them. Kalin and Bobby came over so she could wrap her arms around them.
“Now that the house is finished, maybe we could take the boys into Portsmyth and show them off to my Uncle and Aunt,” Claire suggested and then added, “Before I get too big with this one.” Sean grinned. Kalin looked up at her.
“Are we going to have another brother, Mommy?” he asked her, he was six and remarkable sharp for his age. Sean grinned.
“Nothing gets by you, lad, does it?” he commented and his eldest son grinned. Bobby giggled.
“I want a sister,” he declared and Claire leaned over to kiss him.
“Me too, a little girl is just what this family needs,” she informed him and they both nodded. Sean nodded too.
“A wee lass with your red hair and you stubbornness would be very nice,” he said and she stuck her tongue out at him while the children all laughed at her. She shrugged.
“If you can’t fight it, you might as well join in,” Claire said philosophically. Sean grinned at her and kissed her.
They traveled to Portsmyth by boat and took Sally, Bill and Carrie to help with the children and the old men who were eighty and seventy-seven and insisted on coming along. Ryan was looking forward to Sean’s two hundredth birthday coming up in two years and planning a big celebration for the event. Sean was just happy that his grandsons were still alive, every day they had together was a blessing and the old men tinkered with him in his workshop and came up with some helpful advice.
They settled into a very nice hotel and sent word around to the relatives that they would like to visit which was the polite thing to do and got a card back inviting them to tea the next day. Claire refrained from telling them about the twins, she wanted them to be a surprise. And of course Ryan and Danny insisted on coming with them to introduce their namesakes. Kalin and Bobby insisted on taking their new puppies Betty and Willie whose name had caused their mother to burst out with laughter.
“Of course Willie and Betty can come, you can play with them in Uncle George’s back yard,” she told her sons who grinned. Sean raised his eyebrow. Claire raised hers.
“Well, while we’re having tea, the boys won’t have anything to do and playing in the back yard will be perfect,” she defended herself and Sean laughed and hugged her.
“I never argue with a pregnant woman,” he said and went out to help everyone into the carriage.
“Oh, my God, she’s brought an army with her,” Grace exclaimed when she saw all the people getting out of the carriage in front of her house. She turned horrified eyes towards her husband who shrugged.
“We haven’t seen Claire for three years, we can put up with a few people for the privilege,” he remarked, but he wasn’t prepared for the avalanche of children, dogs and old men who marched into his house and ran about.
“Aunt Grace, Uncle George, how wonderful to see you again,” Claire gushed as they hugged and kissed. Then she introduced her family. “You remember my husband Sean don’t you?” she asked as she held out her hand and pulled him forward. They both nodded.
“Sean, how lovely to see you again,” Grace said graciously. George shook his hand, a rather damp, limp Hamish noble handshake. Sean grinned at him. Claire then introduced the two old men.
“These are Sean’s grandfathers, Ryan and Danny Donoghue,” she said with pride and chairs were brought for the two old men who beamed with the pride of old people who had reached a grand old age. The two nobles were impressed to find out Ryan was eighty years old.
“Eighty, that’s very impressive,” George remarked and Ryan nodded.
“Sometimes I only feel seventy,” he quipped and everyone laughed. Then Claire introduced the two older boys.
“This is Kalin, he’s six and Bobby whose five and they have new puppies, tell Aunt Grace your puppies names,” Claire said to them. Both boys beamed with the pride of ownership.
“My dog is a lass and her name is Betty,” Kalin announced and smiled revealing that one of his front teeth was missing, knocked out in a fight with his brother the previous week. Aunt Grace admired the cute yellow dog.
“She’s a very pretty little dog,” she said but refused an offer to pet it. George looked at the big ears and paws of the puppy.
“She’s going to be a big one,” he remarked and Sean nodded. Then George looked at Bobby. “What’s your puppy’s name, little boy?” he asked him. Bobby frowned at him.
“My name is Bobby and my puppy is a lad and his name is Sir William just like my dad’s horse but we call him Willie for short,” he declared in a loud voice the two nobles looked surprised.
“Willie huh, that’s a very interesting name,” George said and to his great relief the two older boys were excused to take their puppies into the back yard.
“Keep them out of my flowers,” Grace told the servants who grinned and nodded. That left two little boys left which puzzled the nobles because of their