The Believer by Ann H. Gabhart

did not mean that one could not be a true Believer, Ethan told himself, even if part of the Covenant spoke of dividing one's self from the world.
    As they stopped their dance to rest a moment, Ethan looked toward where Brother Issachar sat on a bench on the far side of the room. He was not a gifted dancer and sometimes sat out the sets in order not to disturb the order of the dances. Brother Issachar met his eyes. His look on Ethan was kind as always, but his smile seemed tinged with a knowing sadness as if his mind had reached across the room and read the thought in Ethan's head about the trading trips into the world. As if he could see beyond even those thoughts to some deeper fault in Ethan's soul that would cause the Covenant promises he'd made to become a burden.
    Ethan shook that thought away. Surely he was reading Brother Issachar's face wrong. It was a time to celebrate when one signed the Covenant of Belief. Not a time to be looking back with doubt. A Believer shook away all doubts. A Believer labored the dances and sang the songs to be simple until his path was clear before him. Ethan had done that. He had no doubts. He was a Believer.
    As the meeting broke up, he told himself not to let his mind run after wrong thoughts. Our thoughts are character molds. They shape language and action. Brother Martin had taught him that from Mother Ann's teachings years ago. Now he simply had to have right thoughts. A Believer's thoughts.

    The morning after they buried their father, Elizabeth waited until Payton milked the cow and Hannah fed Aristotle the leftover milk gravy and biscuits from their breakfast. There was no meat and only a crust or two of bread left. She looked at the crock of sourdough starter that her mother had brought with her from Springfield, but Elizabeth had no time to bake more bread. They had some apples left from the tree in back of the cabin, and she had found a few coins in her father's secret hiding places. Perhaps enough to buy food on the way to the Shaker village.
    She sent Hannah back out to the woods to gather more flowers for their father's grave before she made Payton sit down and listen to what had to be done.
    "I'm not going" Payton stared across the table at her as if she had lost her mind. "We are not going to the Shakers"
    Elizabeth smoothed down the seed package she'd left in the middle of the table and leveled her eyes on Payton. "We have no other choice. The Shakers will take us in. They'll give us shelter and food"
    "I can catch fish. We won't starve'
    "Winter is coming, Payton. The river doesn't yield up its fish all that easily in the cold months. You know that:"
    "We have the cow."
    "The cow also needs food in the winter. Fodder we do not have. Fodder Father would have found for her someway, but now we have to find it and I know not how."
    "Colton would help us;' Payton said.
    "That is my fear;" Elizabeth said softly.
    Payton's face changed as if he was remembering the scene he'd witnessed the day before. "Is he so bad?" he asked at last with a trace of hope in his voice.
    "If he were the only way to keep you and Hannah from starving this winter, I would give myself to him even though his very eyes on me make my skin crawl. I'd rather bed with a snake" Elizabeth couldn't stop the shudder that shook her, but then she sat up straighter in her chair and stared at Payton. "But he is not the only way. The Shakers are our way. It's not so far to their village. Maybe two or three days' walk'
    "I won't go' Payton mashed his mouth together in a determined line.
    "Please, Payton" Elizabeth reached across the table to touch his arm. "It's our only way of staying together. You and me and Hannah. We don't have to stay with the Shakers forever. Just for a few months until we figure out something better. It is what Father would have wanted"
    "How do you know?" Payton asked.
    "I prayed for an answer and the Lord gave me this seed packet" Elizabeth held it up. "Father told us about the Shakers. He