Auburn wraps itself around Lake Massabesic, and on a June morning the water lies so flat you could skip a stone across the whole sunrise. We mow the yards on the ridges above it, tidy the edges where lawn gives way to oak and pine, and haul off the winter's leftovers each spring so the season starts clean. In a town this green the mowing is less about speed than about the pattern left behind — stripes that follow the land instead of fighting it. Come October we clear the maple fall along the Route 121 hills and put the lawns down for their rest. Steady work, in a town that rewards it.