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

for us his father will never come back,” Joe Green said and they all grinned.
The bark did the trick and no one died that year for the first time anyone could remember. They all loved the new Count.
Things in other villages went going as good as they were in Sweetwater. Peasants were dying of starvation and disease while the Counts and nobles partied and danced uncaring in their castles. The people watched as tables loaded with food were wasted while they starved a mile away and grew very angry. In Dover when his baby died of starvation while his Count threw a lavish party, a man got angry enough to do something about it. He gathered his neighbors and when the party was over they marched on the castle and murdered everyone in it, all of the soldiers and the Count and his family. They took the food and lived for the rest of the winter in the castle turning back all of the visitors saying that the Count had gone to the city to visit the King.
The King had his own problems. The starving population of the capital had begun to riot, breaking into warehouses to steal the food stored there and there were so many of them, his soldiers couldn’t stop them. They stole food, clothing, blankets, heaters, toasters; anything they could get their hands on. And in groups so large, thousands of them at a time, no one could stop them.
“Why can’t you stop them, what kind of soldiers are you,” he snapped at General Westinghouse who looked at Major Buchanan and shrugged.
“It’s hard, Your Majesty, to stop a thousand people running over you at the same time, you can’t,” the Major protested. The King sighed.
“Well, we have to find someway to stop them, they’re hooligans,” he announced. “I can’t let my city be taken over by a mob.” The soldiers both nodded and swore they would find a way to stop them.
Meanwhile in the country, things were really getting ugly as more and more villages were revolting and the Counts and their families who could escape the angry mobs ran to the city for protection. The whole country was in chaos and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
Back in Sweetwater it was time for spring planting and Sir Harry dropped the days to eight hours and took the women out of the fields because he said field work was too much for women. Instead he got them sewing to do which they could do at home sitting down. He ordered more merchandise for the store, stuff that was better quality and they could actually use. Harry was feeling his power and trying to change as much as he could before his father got back. They had all heard about the unrest in other parts of the country and maybe his father had gotten caught up in it and would be a long time coming back. Or at least he hoped so.
He also told the people that half of what they planted would be theirs to keep, after all, they needed to eat too and they were the ones who planted it. They were astonished and cheered for him. Harry was pleased by their reactions and blushed.
“They never cheered for my father did they, Jeffrey?” he asked the bailiff who shook his head.
“No, Sire, they didn’t,” he informed him with a big grin.
When Harry heard about the villagers in the nearby villages revolting and killing their Counts, he was appalled but could understand why. He immediately wanted to arm his people in case the deranged people came to Sweetwater although it was at the edge of the country so why they should come this way, he didn’t know. Jeffrey wondered why he wanted to arm peasants which was against the law. Harry looked at him.
“We don’t have enough soldiers to protect us, Father must have taken most of them with him,” Harry informed him. “What if the Cherveks attacked, my people would be defenseless. What if these deranged villagers come here and attack us, my people would be defenseless, we must arm them, Jeffrey. My people are peaceful people, they’re not deranged like these other villagers; they could be harmed.” Jeffrey hid his smile and nodded.
“Swords will be found for everyone, Sire, don’t worry, your people will be protected,” he assured him and the people were all armed.
When the people were informed how their Count was concerned about them, they were touched.
“Ah, the wee lad isn’t a bit like his father, that bastard never cared when the Mauraiders came in and murdered us all,” someone said and they all cheered for the new Count.
“We won’t let any harm come to Sir Harry,” Patrick Duffy announced and they all nodded.
When a group of five hundred peasants from Sir Humphrey’s Castle approached the village they were met by armed villagers who turned them away.
“We came for Sir William Marley, let us have him and we’ll go away,” one of the men shouted and they crowd yelled for Sir William.
He’s not here, he’s in Lennox,” Ian Richards informed them and they all looked disappointed.
“Well, we’ll kill his wife and children,” another man shouted and the crowd cheered. Ian shook his head.
“They’re all in Lennox, you’ll have to walk there,” he told them and they walked away disappointed. Harry was relieved.
“I hope they’re alright, I know that Father and Mother can be mean sometimes but I would hate to see anything happen to them,” he said to Jeffrey who promised to send someone to Lennox to check on them. Harry nodded.
“Just go to South Hampton and sit around for a month,” he instructed the two soldiers he had picked for the job. They nodded and grinned and rode away. He gave them enough coin for them to have a good time and when they returned a month later, Jeffrey gave Harry the sad news. Harry took it well.
“Oh, dear, well, that’s what happens when you treat people so badly, eventually they get tired of it and strike out at you,” he said philosophically. “The nobles in Hamish have been treating the peasants terribly for years and this is what happens.”
After the peasants marched to Lennox and chopped off the King’s head, the nobles all began to listen and reform came to the land. The prince who had escaped to Ennis came back and was sworn in as King Henry the Sixth but given very little power as a new government was formed and the people voted in a Parliament instead. Counts and other nobles no longer owned their villagers and the people were freed and no one who had killed anyone in the revolution was ever brought to trial. It was a brand new day for Hamish.
In Sweetwater, Sir Harry, drew up plans to separate his great estate into little farms and gave each of his peasant families their own farms. It took them five years to build everyone a house, barn and other buildings they needed but they did it. It also took a great deal of coin and left him almost broke but it was worth it to undo the damage done by years of tyranny and abuse. His new wife Caroline, the second daughter of Count Reynolds who had been in Lennox during the revolution and escaped the killing of her family thought so too.
“We have enough to live on for our lifetime and this lovely castle to live in, Harry, we’ll be fine,” she said and they took a lovely walk up a trail on the south side of the spring. When she spied the little cave near the two Peanja trees, Caroline begged to explore it.
“What if it’s the Fairie Cave and we miss it because you won’t go in?” she teased him and Harry gave a little laugh.
“You really don’t believe in that silly legend do you, darling?” he teased her back but let himself be led into the cave. He stumbled immediately over a rock.
“See, I almost broke my ass,” he grumbled and bent to pick the rock up. Caroline giggled.
“Well next time look where you’re going, dear,” she said wisely and looked at the strange look on his face. “What is it, Harry, what’s wrong?” she asked. He grinned.
“I think you’ve discovered a gold mine,” Harry informed her and showed her the gold nugget he had tripped over. She squealed and looked at it and sure enough it was a gold nugget laced with silver. Together they looked around and found several more just laying on the ground. Harry dug in the wall with hands and came up with another one.
“I’ll be damned,” he exclaimed. “And to think this was here all the time just waiting for someone to discover it,” he said and kissed her.
“I am the luckiest man in the world,” Harry announced. “I have a beautiful wife who discovers gold mines.” She laughed and kissed him back.
It was the year seventeen fourteen when Harry and his bride discovered their gold mine and Sean discovered something new in his purple energy crystal mine. He was digging on night in June, he hadn’t been tired so he came out to dig like he often did and was in the left tunnel, the one he preferred when his spade hit a rock that tinkled instead of clinked as usual.
“That’s an odd sound,” Sean remarked as he dropped the spade and used his fingers to dig around in the white chalky matter. He pulled out a solid bit and broke apart the white to reveal a piece of black crystal instead of the purple he was expecting. He grew very excited by this and dug some more. In the four hours he dug he managed to find two bags of it, some of it the size of small oranges. Sean decided to keep the discovery to himself until he figured out what made it different from the purple.
The next day he took the two bags to his workshop. Ryan and Danny were sitting on the front porch in their rocking chairs as he left the house.
“I’m going to the workshop, you lads want to come along for a bit?” he asked them. They both shook their heads.
“We’re going to sit here and enjoy the sunshine,” Ryan remarked and Sean bent down to kiss his forehead. The old man was now eighty-five and as spry as ever. Then Sean kissed Danny who was eighty-two.
“I love you lads very much, you have a good time in the sun,” he told them and walked away. Ryan gave his brother a glance and they both laughed.
“You know he says that every time he leaves us like he thinks it’s going to be the last time he sees us,” he remarked casually and his brother snorted.
“Still its nice hearing him say it,” Danny commented and they both nodded. Then Danny and Ryan their namesakes who were seven came out and wanted to hear about the time they stole the rifles from the Hamish soldiers in Ennish and then blasting them out of the water in Jamestown harbor. That was an old story but a good one and little Zach who was four came out to play with his little metal cars and trucks. They were made by Ben Donoghue who was making a fortune selling them to the children. Everyone