Northern Light by Annette O'Hare Read Free Book Online

be here today to tell about it.”
    Thomas waited for the man to go on.
    “The wind that night was so strong it managed to pick my whole body up and flop it around like a sheet hung out to dry. My arm was pinned, and I couldn’t let go. When the wind finally settled, I released my arm and crawled the rest of the way down the stairs. I felt the pain and then saw that the skin on my arm was shredded and the bones were broken to pieces.” Mr. Logan rolled his elbow all the way around to the inside of his arm. “Caroline patched me up as best she could, but it’s never been the same. It didn’t help matters that I couldn’t give my arm any time to heal. A lighthouse keeper has to keep things working or the results could be deadly.”
    “I can understand that, sir. So ye mustn’t be very good with a gun then.”
    “No…I can shoot with my left but probably couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.”
    The two men laughed.
    Mr. Logan rolled down his sleeve and buttoned it. “So, Mr. Murphy, Caroline tells me you’re from Ireland.”
    “Yes, sir, that’s right. My people come from County Cork, the southernmost part of Ireland. It’s a beautiful place, to be sure.”
    “Um-hmm.” Mr. Logan put the pipe between his teeth, lit a match, and put it to the tobacco. He drew in four quick, hard puffs until smoke began to rise from the bowl. “So what brought you to America…fame, riches?”
    “Aye, not so much fame as riches, I suppose. It was An Gorta Mór that brought us here. Ye know about the Great Hunger, don’t ye?”
    “I read about the potato famine in the papers. It was a terrible thing.” A long, thick stream of smoke floated from his mouth.
    “Aye, a most terrible thing, to be sure.” Thomas bowed his head at the painful memory.
    “Do you still have family back home, Mr. Murphy?”
    “Call me Thomas, if ye please, sir. And no, I came here with my father and two brothers.”
    “All right then, Thomas, what about your mama—she didn’t come to America with your family?”
    “No, sir, she sacrificed her life saving her children from starvation. She wasn’t the first to go though. My baby sister, Elizabeth, passed before Mam. She was a precious little thing with her curly auburn hair—it was the fever that took her from us.” Thomas steeled himself as tears threatened in a wave of grief.
    Mr. Logan lowered his pipe. “I’m sorry to hear that. Sounds as if you’ve had about as tough a life as any.”
    “I don’t know, Mr. Logan. I’ve heard stories since I joined the Navy that make mine seem weak. Families from both sides have lost all their sons to the war.”
    “What about your brothers—did they join the Navy with you?” Mr. Logan leaned back in his chair.
    “Aye, my brother Jonathan joined with me, but the youngest, Michael, volunteered to work at DeCamp General Hospital on David’s Island in New York so he’d be close to my pap in the town of Yonkers. Jonathan was put on a gunboat, and I was assigned to a blockade ship.” Thomas looked toward the window and dragged his fingers through his thick, overgrown hair. He released a long breath. “Alas, I haven’t been in contact with any of them for a ver’ long time. I miss them somethin’ awful.”
    Mr. Logan rubbed his jaw, gazing out the window, and then turned back to Thomas “So, what are your views on the war?”
    The hair bristled at the back of Thomas’s neck as an uncomfortable tightness crept up his spine. He wouldn’t lie about how he felt. “Well, Mr. Logan, I think this war is a terrible thing. I see no good in pitting brother against brother because the North and South cannot come to an agreement. But I also think slavery is a horrible institution, and if it takes war to put an end to it…then so be it.” Thomas prepared himself to be thrown out of the house. But instead of the rage he expected, Mr. Logan took a puff from his pipe and grinned—which somehow frightened him even more.
    “Coming from Ireland, you must