It had come to this. Sam and Barbara Gardner had once lived in Dr. Neely’s house on Washington Street, south of the town square. It had a front porch and a sleeping porch on the second floor and oak trees and ivy up the chimney and flagstone walks with moss between the stones, plus a dining room, two parlors, a den with a fireplace, two bathrooms with a shower in the basement, four bedrooms, an attic, a basement, and a garage with a workbench. They had raised their sons there, but had walked away without any equity, borrowing against it to put their boys through college. After that came a parsonage, nice by parsonage standards, but not theirs, so of no use as an investment.