#4 Sheamus Cheallagh

 #4 Sheamus Cheallagh

Sheamus Cheallagh left Ireland for better fortunes with his pregnant wife, Aine. She was early with child and they thought ordeal of the voyage safer than it was. The child was lost midway through the voyage and Aine began to blame Sheamus for the loss, despite the voyage and the attempt to better their lot being her idea. For the rest of the voyage, she abused him, with inattention at first, followed by sharing her attentions with the other men on board. Upon landing in Boston, she declared herself a single woman in America and the last Sheamus saw of his wife was her happily leaving arm in arm with another man.

He continued west out of a sense to duty to see the plan through and a confusion over his place in the world. Everything had seemed so secure and happy a year past. In a small, dirty town in Texas, he found hard work as a cattlehand. The rancher had laughed when he had asked for work and hired him with intentions to work him hard and make him quit as a joke. Sheamus was trampled by cows and knocked into manure and made to move bags of feed his own body weight, but he didn't quit. The other cowhands were starting to think about respecting him when he was found dead in his cot, a red necktie dried up on his throat and a stained bowie knife in his hand.