I’d made it a habit never to eaves-drop on private conversations but being a ghost sometimes makes that difficult. The old adage that eaves-droppers seldom hear anything good about themselves may be true for the living, but I’ve noticed that few speak evil of the dead or of those who they think are dead. Eric’s arrival and subsequent account of seeing me on board The Irish Princess, coupled with Rebekah’s frightening experience was enough to convince all four of my sons that I was no longer among the living. A letter confirming what they felt they already knew, arrived from my brother Henry two months later. In the meantime, I was witness to their memories of me working hard all of my life and how I had often spoken wistfully about my dream of emigrating to the colonies when I was growing up and how my mother had been dead set against it. Her pleading and tears had prevailed but my dream of a place where even a commoner could own property and there was hope for a better life had not been lost on my sons. My wife Esther had not shared my enthusiasm but on her deathbed had given her blessing for the boys to follow the dream that she knew they now shared. That they had done well in the seven years since John and Sam first arrived here was evident by what I now saw around me.

I was enjoying my non- life here with my sons and it felt great not to be a burden. True I had no money, but it was also true that I didn’t need any. I was never hungry, didn’t need a place to sleep and could wear whatever I wanted to imagine. I wanted to help but that was never easy as I discovered the morning I decided to start a fire in the wood stove about a half hour before the boys would be getting up. I thought they’d appreciate getting up to a warm house and a kettle of boiling water for their tea. Sure, it nearly caused a riot! Each of them swore that they hadn’t started the fire. No one had a cup of tea that morning and they had to take Rebekah out in the boat with them. Next I tried cutting some firewood but neighbours complained about hearing someone chopping down trees in the middle of the night. Rebekah went in the boat that day too. Finally I had to settle for the one thing I could do, make sure they got up on time. You should have heard that Rooster crow when he saw me coming with the axe. Best of all they didn’t have to take him out in the boat.