on the laurel estates thing there had been an old man out on the back ridgeway road who had n't wanted to sell , and first the old man 's fourteen-or-so chickens had died of some mysterious ailment and second there had been a fire in the old man 's potato house and third when the old man came back from visiting his sister , who was in a nursing home in keene , one weekend not so long ago , someone bad smeared dogshit all over the old man 's living room and dining room and fourth the old man had sold and fifth laurel estates was now a fact of life .