By the strict letter of his agreement he could not sell hay off the farm; but it had been permitted for years.

When they heard this they knew it was all over.

The landlord, of course, put in his claim; the bank theirs.

In a few months the household furniture and effects were sold, and the farmer and his aged wife stepped into the highway in their shabby clothes.
He did not, however, starve; he passed to a cottage on the outskirts of the village, and became bailiff for the tenant of that very arable farm to work which years ago his father had borrowed the thousand pounds that ultimately proved their ruin.

He made a better bailiff than a farmer, being at home with every detail of practice, but incapable of general treatment.