Gays is a small place with a tall curiosity — that two-story outhouse everybody stops to photograph — set in the gentle Moultrie County country between the Kaskaskia and Lake Shelbyville. Thomas Lawn Services & Repair mows these yards through a central-Illinois summer of thunderheads and long light, when grass answers a rain within a day. The work is mowing, trimming, edging: a clean turn around walks and posts and the base of a shade tree so a lawn looks deliberate rather than accidental. Spring means gathering whatever the wind brought down; October means staying out ahead of the leaves. In a village this size the whole street notices a yard done right, which is fair motivation.