Down along the river the old mill brick soaks up October, and the open ground between the buildings goes gold and then bare. R&M Construction & Landscaping Inc works that end of Fitchburg, putting in the last cuts of the year and clearing whatever the wind piles into every corner and doorway. Grass in a mill yard is a small triumph to begin with; it takes tending to hold its ground. So it gets tended — cut even, trimmed right up to the pavement, hauled away clean. Then in spring they start again at the first green, same yards, same standard.