Come October the combines are running east of Merna and the dust hangs gold over the roads until dark, and every lawn in Old Town Township gets a share of it. Mowers and Rakers works that stretch of the season hard: the last mowings, a little shorter each time, and then leaves, which arrive here from the old timber and the yard maples both. Raking, gathering, hauling off, and going back again after the next windy night — autumn is not one job but four. The rest of the year is the level part, a weekly cut with the lines run long, trimming around the mailbox and the field gate, edging the drive so it keeps a clean shoulder. Out near Holder and the rail line the yards sit wide open, and a mowed lawn there shows from a half mile off.