Winter comes at Liberty from the northwest, over the Iowa side of the river and across open ground with nothing to slow it down. Anderson's Snow Removal keeps hours that match it: out at three or four in the morning, headlights full of falling snow, plowing driveways and opening walks while the village is still dark. Salt goes down where the ice sets up hardest — the pitch of a drive, the step at a back door. By the time the buses come along Route 104, the lanes are open and the ruts are gone. Nothing announces the work except the fact that everyone gets where they're going.