US-12 runs straight through Allen, the old Chicago Road, and all summer the antique shop porches watch the traffic drift by at twenty-five. A village this small keeps its front yards where everyone can see them, which is exactly where Crewcut Landscaping LLC does its work. Mowing on the weekly turn, the trimmer around posts and stone, the sidewalk edge cut back so the concrete shows its full width again. South of the village the Hillsdale County farm ground rolls off toward the headwaters of the St. Joseph, and the same job travels out those gravel roads to houses set back in the oaks. A lawn cut clean is a small kind of welcome, and on this road there is always somebody passing to receive it.