The Fourth Life of Sean Donoghue, Trish Hanan [interesting books to read txt] 📗

hide the cannons under the chicken houses he had selected. The men got the mules and harnessed them up and soon the clearing was empty. Sean took the supplies back to his barn and put them in the cellar under it and hid them. Then he went back to the clearing and used a shovel to move the burned earth around.
And not a moment too soon, as he was leaving he spied Harvey Wilson, one of the Major’s spies, who had been living on the Ridge for the past six months walking along the hill top over-looking the clearing carrying a fishing pole. His twelve year-old son was with him. Those Wilson boys sure did a lot of fishing, he grinned to himself and all of it within sight of his farm, fancy that. Sean walked home and harnessed up his plow. It was spring and time for the planting to begin.
“How’s the planting going on?” Ryan asked him as Sean sat down at the dinner table. Sean grinned at the three old folks.
“Ah, lad, you know me, I like digging in the dirt,” he said and they all laughed. Sally passed him a plate of half-raw meat they way he liked it cooked and he took a big piece.
“Sally, this looks delicious,” he said and sniffed it; she had used some of the new spices from Topanga on it. She flushed with pride.
“Thank you, Sean, its nice when someone appreciates my cooking,” she said and looked at her husband who rolled his eyes.
“Just because you put raisins in the rice pudding and you know I don’t like raisins,” he complained and the others laughed. Just then they heard the sound of horses racing up the slope, almost right to the door.
“What in the world?” Sean muttered and he got up to go to the door. Before he got there, there came a loud banging on it and he opened it to find the Hamish army on his doorsteps. Four soldiers came rushing in followed by a very angry Major Steinbeck who was waving a newspaper.
“I’ve got you now, you rotten bastard,” he announced. “It is against the law to write slanderous words against His or Her Majesty and if this cartoon isn’t slanderous than I’m the Queen of Ennis,” he said smugly and shoved the newspaper into Sean’s chest. Sean opened it to find his latest cartoon, this one of the Queen of Hamish, her royal highness Queen Anne sitting on a toilet and taking a crap on the people of Anamylia while the Queen of Ennis laughed. Sean almost grinned but he held it back. This was no time for laughter. He looked at the Major and put a look of confusion on his face instead.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Major,” he informed him calmly. The Major snatched the paper and pointed to the little initials at the bottom.
“S.D., see right there, there are your initials, S.D. for Sean Donoghue,” he yelled. “I’ve been reading these for weeks now and thought your taste in artwork crude and humorless but this time young man you’ve gone too far. You’ll get twenty lashes and five years in prison for this little cartoon,” he spat in Sean’s face. Sean shook his head.
“You can’t prove that this S.D. is me, this person could be Steven Douglas for all you know; I can’t draw anyway, there’s no way you can prove I drew this cartoon,” he informed him. The Major flushed.
“Sergeant, give me the pad,” he snapped. The sergeant reached in his bag and took out a drawing pad and a drawing pencil. Major Steinbeck shoved them into Sean’s hands.
“Now you sit down there at the table and draw damn-it and don’t try to mess up on purpose, I’ll be watching you,” he shouted. Sean shrugged and moved the plates on the table. The Major didn’t even apologize for disturbing their dinner, he just watched as Sean tried to copy the cartoon from the paper. It soon became apparent to everyone watching that there was no way he could draw, not every a tiny bit. The Major was furious.
“Is that the best you can do?” he yelled. Sean shrugged.
“I’m sorry, Major, I’m trying the best I can,” he apologized. The Major snatched the pad up and compared it to the cartoon in the newspaper. With a growl, he threw them both down and stomped out of the house. The soldiers followed him and they heard the horses racing away. Danny picked up the pad and looked at the drawing.
“Not your best work, Granddad,” he said with a grin. Sean put the dinner plates back into position and resumed his dinner. Annie stared at him.
“Aren’t you left-handed?” she asked. Ryan giggled.
“Well, now that you mention it, I think he is,” he said and they all laughed.
“You’re going to get your fool head in a noose if you keep this up,” Annie warned. Sean shrugged.
“I’d only be dead for a few hours and then I could come back as my twin brother Steven,” he informed them. “Just make sure the family claims my body and you don’t let them burn or bury me.” They all nodded. Sally looked shocked.
“Why would they burn the body, even the Hamish wouldn’t do that,” she said. Sean shrugged.
“Who knows what the Hamish would do next, it’s safer to be sure,” he said grimly.
The following week Mike O’Brien was called away to a special meeting at the Governor’s office and he retuned looking very grim. He called the entire Ridge to an important meeting.
“People I have a very important announcement to make,” he stood on the raised dais which was larger and higher than his great-grandfather’s had been. Everyone was silent so they could hear what he had to say.
“Governor Furbush had declared war on the Blackeyes Indians,” Mike said loud and clear. Everyone looked at each other and frowned. And for once no one made fun of the governor’s name.
“What does that mean to us, Mike?” a man in the crowd yelled. Everyone grumbled and demanded an answer. Mike held up his hands and the crowd settled down.
“Every land grant holder has been requested to raise an army of two hundred men, to arm them and supply them and to report to Pembroke no later than April thirtieth,” he informed them. “We are going to war, gentlemen, I’ll be asking for volunteers, first among the young single men with no wives or children and then the younger men. If not enough volunteers then I’ll draw by way of a lottery. It will be fair and I’ll be going to lead you, but go we must or we all lose our land. That’s what the Governor said. Oh yes, he also told me that the Hamish will be paying a ten gilder bounty on every Blackeyes ear that you collect from the dead Indians,” Mike said the last sentence with a look of disgust on his face. Sean felt equally disgusted. Leave it to the Hamish to turn a simple massacre into a blood bath.
Sean volunteered and most of his younger relatives without children. Young Sean wanted to volunteer but at seventeen fell six months short of the age requirement. Sean hugged him.
“Don’t worry, lad, you’ll soon be fighting the Hamish and that’s a war worth fighting, this is going to be a massacre pure and simple and not worth your time,” he told him and Sean had to be content with that. Sean led seventeen Donoghues down the slope on horses with mules filled with supplies. Mike greeted them on Main Street.
“Should I be worried about the men who are bragging about how many Indian ears they’re going to collect?” he asked Sean in a soft voice. Sean nodded.
“I wouldn’t turn my back on those men in the dark,” he told him and then added, “And I wouldn’t count on them to watch my back when I needed it watched.” Mike nodded. They set off for Portsmyth two hundred and six men, some of them eager but most of them resigned.
“I don’t see why the Hamish army can’t fight their own battles,” one of the older men complained as they rode. Sean laughed.
“The Hamish army couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag,” he retorted and they all laughed.
Once in Portsmyth they ran into men from O’Malley’s and MacDonald’s Ridges and the three Ridges sailed together to Pembroke harbor. Their spirits were high and they all made fun of the Hamish army. Sean’s comment about them not being able to fight their way out of a paper bag was repeated often.
“Tell us another one, Granddad,” Lonnie begged when they got bored. Sean grinned.
“Well, how can you tell when a Hamish is lying?” he asked them. They all shook their head.
“How can you?” someone asked him. Sean laughed.
“Because his mouth is moving,” he answered and they all laughed. Then he thought of a new one.
“The Hamish all talk like men with paper arse-holes who forgot to pay their fire insurance,” he told them and they all broke into peals of laughter. Todd patted him on his back.
“Granddad, you’re the best,” he said. Someone asked him.
“Why do you all call him Granddad?” Todd grinned.
“Ah, that’s just a family joke,” he told him. Soon everyone was calling Sean Granddad, they thought it was funny. He didn’t mind, he’d been answering to Granddad for so long, it felt like his real name.
When they arrived in Pembroke the army was camped north of the city in a huge tent city. Their General was a Hamish idiot named Westinghouse who didn’t know his arse from a hole in the ground and he had the men all helter-shelter all over the place. The Ridge men took charge of themselves and lined up in formation in the order they appeared on the mountain. Adam’s followed by Lamanski and down the line. The Hamish was very jealous that all of the Ridge men had rifles and they didn’t.
“Where did they all get rifles?” Major Buchanan asked the General as they watched the Ridge men walking around. The General frowned.
“I wasn’t aware that there were that many rifles in the territories,” he replied. They had both been just informed that the shipment of rifles that they had been expecting had been delayed once again. Someone in Ennis had stolen another shipment from the Giovanni warehouse and the Hamish hadn’t a clue as to whom. The soldiers in the territory who had to fight savage Indians were furious, how could they keep the settlers safe when those fools back in Ennis couldn’t even guard one little building. And with a hundred soldiers, those stupid fools in Ennis couldn’t guard their own mothers!
“Go send some men around and ask some of them where they got those rifles,” General Westinghouse said with a sly smile. The Major smiled and did so. They weren’t smiling when their men returned with the same story.
“He said he bought off some man off a wagon,” the corporal said and saluted. The Major threw down some papers with such force they flew off his desk. The General snorted.
“Some man off a wagon, they’ve been telling that same old