In the shade of the Sabine National Forest the light comes down in pieces, and grass grows unevenly for it — thick in the open, thin under the loblollies. John's lawn service reads that difference yard by yard around Hemphill, cutting at a height each lawn can carry through August. Afternoons go to the trimming and the edging, the slow careful passes along fence posts and flower beds where a mower will never reach. Fallen leaves and needles get cleared before they mat down and smother what is underneath. It is unhurried work, and by evening the yard has the settled look of a place someone tends.