Trains have been slipping through the ridge at Otisville longer than anyone in Mount Hope can remember, and on a late-August afternoon the whole valley goes gold around that cut. Springfield landscaping spends those afternoons on lawns — mowing, trimming, edging, and the cleanups that get a yard ready for whatever comes next. Grass in this town grows in every kind of light, full sun on the open lots and deep shade beneath the hardwoods, and each asks for a different hand. Reading that is the skill nobody notices and everybody sees. What they see is an even sweep of green running from the road all the way to the door.