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

don’t want to shot your dad do you?” Sean asked gently as he steered the gun barrel down. The seventeen year-old gasped and blushed.
“Oh, God, no, I’m sorry, Dad,” he stammered. His dad grinned at him.
“Its okay, lad, just remember to point that thing to the ground whenever you have it in your arms,” he warned him and the boy nodded. When they all had bullets loaded, Sean gave the order for them to cock the levers and then they took aim and then he yelled.
“Fire.” And they did. It was an explosion of fifty-two rifles and it echoed over the mountains like nothing the mountains had ever heard before. All of the women plugged their fingers to their ears and laughed. Birds took to the air, screaming their protest. Everyone laughed at who had hit the targets and who had hit the mountain. Then they slid the bolts and felt the heat of the shell casings and tried again.
Sean let them all try ten shots and then he made them clean their rifles and he told them how important it was to keep them free of the gunpowder residue or the barrels will get filled with it and misfire, the bullets could come out the other end and kill them, or blow the barrel apart. And he warned them about making sure the gun was empty before unlatching the hinge or they could blow a hole in themselves.
“You don’t want to shoot yourselves, lads, think how embarrassing that would be,” he informed them and they all laughed.
“Now the sea Captain who bought these fine rifles paid a hundred gilders apiece for them and he sold them to me for a hundred and fifty gilders each,” Sean told them and they all looked at one another and frowned. They couldn’t afford that. None of them had that kind of coin. Sean could see the disappointment on their faces. He quickly put them out of their misery.
“But seeing how your all my great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, although some of you still don’t believe in all that Fairie Cave legend nonsense, I’m going to give you a big cut on the price,” Sean informed them with a big grin. Ryan giggled.
“How much are you going to charge us?” Douglas his youngest grandson asked; his face worried. Everyone looked at Sean who smiled at Douglas.
“Not a gilder, Doug, the rifles are my gift to all of you because you’re my family and you don’t charge family for something like this,” he said and they all gasped. Ryan and Danny laughed. Then Sean turned to the women.
“Don’t you ladies fret, I brought back something from Ennis for you too and you’re going to love it,” he teased them and they all got excited.
“What is it?” Lizzie asked as they walked back to the house. Sean hugged her.
“As soon as I figure out how to work it, I’ll show it to you, give me a couple of days, lass,” he told her and she pouted. He patted her backside and grinned.
“I can’t teach you how to operate it if I don’t know how, now can I?” he reasoned and she was mystified. All the women tried to think of what it could be, but they just had to wait.
The next day Sean and some of the men went down to the caves and brought back barrels of sugar, coffee and tea and passed it out amongst his family. They were very grateful because the stores had so little of it and the price was so high.
“Those damned Hamish and their high taxes are killing us,” Ben one of his grandsons grumbled. Sean nodded.
“You ought to start a conversation with others who think the same way and try to think of ways you can handle that,” he told him. Ben thought about it.
“No, I can’t think of any,” he said and Sean knew he wasn’t the right man for the job.
The next day he took out one of the sewing machines and some sewing supplies and set it up in the front room. Sally and Annie took one look at it and were amazed.
“What is this, Sean?” Annie asked. Sean smiled at her.
“This is called a sewing machine, lass and you’re going to be amazed at what it can do,” he informed her.
“A machine that can sew?” Sally gasped and they watched as Sean put the pedal on the floor, then took out a spool of thread wound the thread through the machine and put a bobbin in, thread the needle and then put two pieces of material down on the shuttle and with a light press on the pedal the shuttle moved the material, the needle moved up and down rather quickly, Sean guided the material straight and then it was done. The material had gone through. He held it up, cut the threads in back of the needle and then opened it for them to see. They both gasped in shock.
“Give that to me,” Annie demanded and with a smile he did. She carefully examined the sewn material. Sally peered over her shoulder.
“Look at the neat tiny stitches,” she said with awe. Annie tried to break the material apart and couldn’t.
“I can’t believe it, Granddad; do it again,” she ordered. Sean took the material and did it again, and again and a fourth time, leaving a little space. Then he turned the material inside out and he had a little pillow. Both women looked at it with awe.
“If you fill this with foam, you’ll have a little pillow, just like that,” Sally spoke with wonder and Annie nodded and looked at the machine with reverence.
“Where was this damned thing when I was making clothes for five kids,” she snapped and Sean laughed and hugged her.
“Let’s set up a machine for Sally and get the books out to read them,” he suggested and that’s what they did.
For the next few days Sean, Sally, and Annie became experts on the sewing machines and they made a couple of shirts for the men and two dresses and a couple of pillows and curtains for the house. It was the easiest thing in the world. Sally was so happy so almost cried when she sat down at it. Sean teased her.
“You’re never going to sew by hand again are you, lass?” he said and hugged her.
“Never again, Sean Donoghue, never again,” she said and grinned.
They called all the women of the family together and made baby clothes for the demonstration making little pants and shirts while the women gasped with surprise and wonder. Even the younger girls who were just learning how to sew wanted one. So Sean gave them all sewing machines, each and every woman, even the baby girls got a sewing machine and he put twenty aside for the girls who even born yet. He would make more trips to Ennis later for more children. Then he took one up to Stone’s five and dime and gave a demonstration to Ben Stone who was the great-grandson of the original. Luckily he had heard about it from his wife who was a friend of the family and he bought a hundred on consignment with Sean, them splitting the profits.
Friday night Sean and the brothers went up to Jefferies to have a cold one. Sean hadn’t been back long enough to make any beer, he didn’t have any barley yet so he took a bottle of his own whiskey to drink in case the beer turned out to be bad and a cask of rum to give as a present. Several relatives greeted the three men as they entered the tavern.
“Hey, Stan,” Sean greeted his great-grandson who owned the place and put the cask of rum on the bar. Stan came over and grinned at him.
“I shot a deer today, got him at over a hundred yards, I love that rifle,” he informed him and several men looked interested.
“That’s all you Donoghues can talk about is these blasted rifles, what the hell are rifles?” one of them asked. Sean looked at him.
“I’ll show you mine in a minute, let me talk to Stan here,” he said and they nodded.
“I brought you a little something from the island, its called rum and while it’s not whiskey which is a real man’s drink, it’ll be good for the boys to drink,” he told him with a grin. Some of the men laughed and Stan took it.
“Okay, I’ll try it out and see if they like it,” he said and offered Sean a free beer for bringing it. Sean agreed and took a sip of the beer he was given.
“Ah, lad, it’s a sin to be serving this crap to the men,” he said and made a face. They all laughed. Stan nodded.
“It’s the only beer I can get, Granddad,” he told him. “Not everyone can afford the thousand gilders for a license and this crap costs me a fortune as it is.” Sean nodded.
“Don’t worry, lad, as soon as I get some barley I’ll be making my beer and you can tell the man who had the audacity to sell you this crap to go to hell,” he said and everyone cheered. Then Sean picked up his rifle and showed it to everyone. They were fascinated it by it and more than one hand came out to stroke the barrel or stock.
Then Sean loaded a bullet into it and told Stan to put an empty glass on the bar.
“Plug up your ears, lads, its going to be loud,” he warned and then he lifted it, aimed and fired, hitting the glass and blowing it up. The men all gasped. Sean ejected the shell casing and a man picked it up and then dropped it.
“It’s hot,” he said with surprise and picked it up again.
“That’s because of the gunpowder,” Sean informed him. And then he explained to all of them how the gun worked. Then he told them that if they wanted to buy one from him they could for only fifty gilders.
“Fifty gilders, that’s a lot,” one man muttered and looked at his feet. Sean nodded.
“Or you plant some barley and pay me in that,” he suggested and added that they could pick up the rifles now and deliver the barley in the fall. Everyone perked up at that.
“Just a field of barley for a gun, that’s all?” Jack Green asked him with hope in his eyes. Sean nodded.
“I’m going to need a lot of barley if I’m going to be making my beer and whiskey to sell to Stan here,” he informed them and everyone nodded. This they could understand, he wasn’t giving the rifles away, they were earning them fair and square, a man had his pride after all, and no one wanted to accept charity. Ryan leaned forward.
“Good idea, Granddad,” he whispered and Sean grinned at him.
“A man’s got to keep his pride, lad, sometimes that’s all a man has,” he told him and both brothers nodded.
Over the next weeks Sean handed out a lot of rifles to men on the Ridge, some for fifty gilders but most of them for the promise of barley. He took the men for their word refusing the offer of a promissory note, saying that he trusted them. He told Bill to watch out for