The Cavalry

About The Cavalry

Southwest of Havre the land folds into coulees and the old Fort Assinniboine road runs out through grass that has been minding its own business since long before anyone mowed it. Some yards get that way too — a season skipped, a summer of travel, a lot that went knee-high while nobody was looking. That is the call The Cavalry answers, arriving in the flat midday July heat with the mower set high for the first pass and lower for the second, cutting a lawn back out of the tangle a lap at a time. Trimming clears the fence corners and the base of the mailbox post; edging finds the sidewalk again under the overhang; the haul-off leaves nothing behind but green and the smell of it. By the time the shadows lean east there is a yard where the field used to be, and keeping it that way afterward is the easy part.