By Earnest Way of the Tree is the story of the Parsons family, who have committed to life in a budding religious sect in young America. Their utopian world, however, is not quit equipped for the trappings of man, and the discovery of a relationship between young Rebecca Parsons and a respected community elder unravels the finely woven fabric of the family's once unyielding faith. The Parsons struggle in the fringes of doubt, for the first time, questioning once solid ideals that seem to falter in the harsh constraints of dogma. Steeped in heavy symbolism and catapulted by Reverend Parsons own sermon of the necessity of sacrifice in finding mercy, the Parsons discover a place of sullen contemplation at the foot of the tree, where their son Joshua (sentenced for retaliation against the accused elder) has been mysteriously drawn- likened as a void, a figurative warrior, invisible in existence to his family and shunned by the community. Though the family attempts to sort out an earnest path at the foot of the tree, they bare a far greater secret sin which they can hardly share with one and other. The toll of unsettled doubt causes the suffering of a deep and far harsher yoke, and it appears that even the new land (once hopeful and prosperous) turns against the sect, leaving little means of survival unless he finds true reconciliation in the way of God's mercy. But, first, there is to be a terrible sacrifice before this reckoning... in the earnest way of the tree. "By Earnest Way of the Tree" is Michael Lee Lockett's second published work. His first publication,"A Humdrum of Shorts," is a collection of short stories, novellas, and poems.