Presently he brought his tilted chair down with a sharp thud . Gabe Foley had paused in his manipulation of a king to hurl a question at the Greenvale men . `` Is it true that old man Strong is to be turned out next week ? '' `` True enough , '' answered William Jeffers . `` Joe Moore is going to foreclose . Stephen Strong has got three years behind with the interest and Moore is out of patience . It seems hard on old Stephen , but Moore ai n't the man to hesitate for that . He 'll have his own out of it . '' `` What will the Strongs do ? '' asked Gabe . `` That 's the question everyone in Greenvale is asking . Lizzie Strong has always been a delicate little girl , but maybe she 'll manage to scare up a living . Old Stephen is to be the most pitied . I do n't see anything for him but the poorhouse . '' `` How did Stephen Strong come to get into such a tight place ? '' the stranger asked suddenly . `` When I was in these parts a good many years ago he was considered a well-to-do man . '' `` Well , so he was , '' replied William Jeffers . `` But he began to get in debt when his wife took sick . He spent no end of money on doctors and medicines for her .
And then he seemed XXXXX have a streak of bad luck besides -- crops failed and cows died and all that sort of thing .
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