Every spring, Mr Hall entered the street’s best-garden competition. This year he spent weeks trimming the hedges, straightening the flowerbeds and polishing the little path.
His neighbour left the garden untidy. A watering can lay on its side; the grass had missed a cut.
When the results came out, the neighbour won a prize.
‘For that garden?’ Mr Hall asked the judge.
‘The children voted,’ she said. ‘They liked the little frog pond.’
‘That’s a puddle under a leaking tap!’
The neighbour looked surprised too. ‘I’ve been trying to fix it for a month,’ he said. ‘Now I’m frightened to.’