Wonderful Lonesome by Olivia Newport

is his plan. Nine train tickets would be costly, and he wants the horses.”
    “What will he do for work? Do the English in cities even use cobblers anymore? Don’t they have factories for things like that?”
    Rudy shrugged. “Noah is not afraid of hard work. He will find something.”
    “But they cannot even go to their families if they are still intent on leaving the Amish church.”
    Rudy turned to look at Abbie. He gestured toward the buggy. “They are truly leaving, Abbie. You have to put them in God’s hands.”
    “If they were in need, the rest of us would do anything we could to help, just as they would have for us. A family with seven children—they have to know what a loss this is for our community. Why should they leave when the rest of us are here? I had hoped they cared more than that.”
    “Your own love for the church cannot force anyone to stay.”
    “You stayed,” Abbie said. “That day at the depot, you were thinking of leaving, but you are still here.”
    Rudy said nothing.
    “Rudy, you’re staying, aren’t you?”
    “I don’t want to quarrel, Abigail.”
    Her heart raced. “We are not quarreling. We are talking about the good of the community, about not thinking only of ourselves but how our choices will affect many other people.”
    Rudy gave the pebble a swift kick with the side of his shoe. “You should talk to your own Willem about that. He will do anything it takes to save his farm. Surely you know that.”
    “We all share that goal. If we save our farms, we save our settlement, and if we save the settlement, we save the church.”
    “In your mind everything is tied together like so much string in a ball. Willem doesn’t see it that way.”
    “Who are you to say how Willem sees our life here?” Abbie ground her teeth together. Who was Rudy to think he knew Willem better than she did?
    “I thought we weren’t going to quarrel.” Rudy spoke softly.
    Abbie swallowed. “We’re not.”
    “Ask Willem yourself, unless you are afraid to hear what he would say.”
    “Of course I am not afraid to ask Willem.” Abbie flipped a palm up. “I’ll do it tomorrow.”
    “Ask him what choice he would make between his farm and the church.”
    “Why should he have to make that choice?”
    Rudy was not looking at her any longer. “The Chupps are ready. We should go wish them Godspeed.”

    “Does Mamm know you are taking salt pork?” Levi Weaver raised his blue eyes with the question.
    Abbie put the lid back on the wooden barrel outside the Weaver back door and made sure it was closed tightly. “Yes, she does.”
    “Is she sure we have enough food for you to take some?” Levi thumped the barrel lid himself.
    Abbie carried a hunk of pork into the kitchen, where she had left a knife on the butcher block. Levi followed. “As you can see, I am only taking a little bit.”
    “But Mamm always says every bit of food counts.” Levi’s tone carried no accusation.
    “And she is right.” Abbie drew the knife through the pork and carved off five modest slices. She held one out to Levi.
    The boy shook his head. “I wouldn’t feel right.”
    “I am sure Mamm would want you to have it. She said only yesterday that she doesn’t believe you are eating enough.”
    “I’m fine.”
    Levi was such a serious child, Abbie thought. He was not anything like the two brothers in between the family bookends that Abbie and Levi formed. Daniel and Reuben were hardworking and respectful, but they did not carry the weight of the world on their shoulders.
    “Levi, we have enough food. It probably feels like we eat the same things all the time. I suppose that’s true, but we have enough.”
    “It can’t last forever.”
    “We have to eat, Levi. That’s what food is for.”
    “But you’re taking a picnic for Willem. Is he running out of food?”
    Abbie wrapped the pork slices in a flour sack towel. “I don’t think so. But he’s a bachelor. We often share food with him and the others. You