Oquawka sits right on the Mississippi, where the river goes wide and unhurried and the bottoms grow cottonwood faster than anything ought to grow. Small Town Tree Service works that sandy Henderson County ground — tree removal on silver maples that split at every crotch, tree trimming and pruning to keep a river-bottom tree from getting ahead of itself. High water and spring wind take their turn every year, so storm damage cleanup is the morning-after job: limbs off the roof, the lane opened, brush hauled and the grass put back the way it was. In February the eagles sit in the big sycamores along the shore and you can see every branch you left, which is a fair way to be judged. Around the square and the little park beside it, the July shade is the whole reason anybody bothers.