Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd

Chapter 5: Departure of Bathsheba--a Pastoral Tragedy (continued)

Gabriel's farm had been stocked by a dealer--on the strength of Oak's promising look and character--who was receiving a percentage from the farmer till such time as the advance should be cleared off. Oak found that the value of stock, plant, and implements which were really his own would be about sufficient to pay his debts, leaving himself a free man with the clothes he stood up in, and nothing more.