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A slip that becomes a habit and then a lifestyle that leads to disaster is a theme this week’s stories about people behaving badly. I used Cornerstone Fellowship pastor Steve Madsen’s definition of  sin as missing a mark or overstepping a boundary as my standard.

• “The Legend of Fray Baltazar,” excerpt from Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather

In the early days of the old West, evangelizing priests served their God and His people first or they served themselves first. A self indulgent priest gets fat off the labor of the Indians. A simple tale told well, Cather sits us at the old priest’s table on the flat hard Acoma mesa. We look for exits along with his guests when the priest carelessly crosses a line with behavior that is sure to have consequences.

• “Rock Springs,” by Richard Ford, American Short Story Masterpieces, ed. Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks

Down-and-outer Earl gets along as best he can, hooking up with women he hopes will make him feel better, stealing cars to leave town whenever the law laps at his heels for passing bad checks. He’s the nice person you know whose unending string of bad luck puts him on the outside looking in.

•   “Gopher Prairie,” excerpt from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, Narrative 

Newlywed Carol accompanies her groom from the big city to provincial Gopher Prairie. We are privy to her internal struggle between wanting to think well of her new husband and home and her distaste for a simpler way of life. Carol is tempted to give in to her critical feelings. Instead, she trusts her husband and looks for good in her new situation. I don’t remember how the book ends, but at this juncture it looks like she will adapt and thrive.

• “Redemption,” by John Gardner, American Short Story Masterpieces, ed. Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks

A young boy causes his brother’s death by accident and withdraws into self-hatred. His redeeming moment comes when he responds to an invitation to focus on something outside of his pain.

• “Dream Children,” by Gail Godwin, American Short Story Masterpieces, ed. Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks

Reckless behavior is a clue to the state of mind of a woman who has experienced the type of loss that causes others to wonder how she survived.

• “The Flying Stars,” The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton,

My sister talked me into reading a Father Brown mystery. I think this might be classified as a cozy mystery. When master thief Flambeau oversteps a boundary, the good Father talks him out of the life of crime he so enjoys.

Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil. That road goes down and down.

• “Bread, Riley,” by Ed Gauthier, Postcardshorts.com

I was at Iowa Summer Writing Festival with Ed. He emailed me this story on a postcard about a dog that gets adopted, adapted and abandoned. Bad!