Morning arrives sideways in Deep River, sliding down the wooded slopes toward the Connecticut before it ever reaches the yards along Main Street. Gabe's Lawncare works that ground — mowing, trimming, edging along the walks, and hauling the clippings off so the grass reads as one clean sweep of green. In the old ivory town the lots come out odd-shaped and the grades are steep, which is exactly the kind of ground that rewards a slow, deliberate pass. There is real satisfaction in the final strip beside a stone wall, the line true, the border sharp enough to see from the road. When fall tips the ridge, the leaves come down all at once, and the rakes and blowers go out to put the lawns to bed.