Read Online The Believer by Ann H. Gabhart - Free Book Online Page B

could be with Ethan. He could take a few peeks at the world without desiring to become part of it.
    One of Brother Martin's most oft-repeated warnings was how curiosity could lead a boy into trouble. As it had Ethan many times when he first came to live with the Shakers. He had made his confessions to Brother Martin and paid the price for that trouble. Not with any kind of punishments from Brother Martin, but from the guilt he felt in his own heart for doing wrong. There had even been times when he'd felt so pulled toward anger at one of his brothers, he worried that the seed of the man who claimed to be his father was sprouting meanness in him.
    He'd once confessed that worry to Brother Issachar, for Ethan had never told anyone but him about how the man who'd stolen him from Preacher Joe claimed to be his father. He trusted Brother Issachar not to hold that truth as a black mark on Ethan's soul, and he did not. Instead, he assured Ethan that his father's meanness would not sprout inside him.
    'A man has many seeds within him. It is the seeds that are watered that grow. We know not what happened to your father that caused the wrong seeds to grow within him. Perhaps it was simply meanness as you say. Perhaps he was treated cruelly himself as a child. Either way, he wasn't in your life long enough to water any of those wrong seeds within you. You were treated with kindness and love by your Preacher Joe and his wife. You have been nurtured in peace here among the Believers. If those cruel seeds were ever within you, they've surely been crowded out by the growth of the good seeds:'
    It was something Ethan liked to imagine. The good seeds growing in him. The Shakers worked hard to produce good seeds for their crops and their gardens. They cast out the seed from the varieties of plants that didn't thrive in their soil and kept the seed from the plants that produced abundantly. That was what he wanted to do. Cast out the bad seeds within him and cultivate the good seeds so that he could better live the simple life of a Believer. It was a gift to be simple. To take joy in the shaping of a piece of wood into an axe handle or a bowl. To know that the work of one's hands would be used for the good of all the brethren and sisters.
    He and Brother Issachar loaded the wagon with the crates of spices and potions. They laid the flat brooms in the wagon bed beside the boxes and filled in the middle with baskets. They covered it all with the heavy cover the sisters had woven especially for the purpose of protecting their baskets from the weather on the way to market.
    Ethan looked up from tying down the cover and asked, "Will we also be going into the town?" He'd been in the town a few times. He found it cluttered, without proper planning for the buildings and roads the way Harmony Hill was built. Still, it was interesting to see the people and the different manner of their dress. Some of them carried the same wild look of the men who had carried him down the river.
    "Yea, the sisters have need of sugar to finish making their apple butter, and Sister Vera has a list of other necessary supplies since we must go for the sugar." Brother Issachar climbed up on the springboard seat. When Ethan climbed up beside him, he handed Ethan the reins for the team of horses that stood patiently in front of the wagon waiting for the men to be ready. "You drive," he said.
    It was a beautiful morning. The air carried that crisp feel of autumn even as the sun warmed their shoulders. Beside the road the maples were yellow and gold with here and there a rose-hued tree that seemed to infuse the morning light with its pink color. The sassafras trees were red as freshly spilled blood while the oaks only showed hints of the dark red that would soon spread through all their leaves. Squirrels chattered at them from the limbs of the oaks where they were gathering their winter provisions.
    The few people they met on the road nodded toward them politely with no show of