A Police Notice?

■山东  刘永科

Mr. Brown lived in a house less than two miles away from his office. He was therefore able to drive home every day for lunch. Every time he drove home in the middle of the day, he found cars were parked in the road outside his house, and there was no room for his own car. He had to drive two blocks farther before he could find a place to park. Then he had to walk home. This made him very angry.　　

He had put up a board, which read “No Parking!” , in the garden facing the road, but nobody seemed to pay attention to it. People only obeyed a police notice, but not a private one. There were no parked cars where there was a blue board with white letters on it:　

 Police Notice: No Parking 

Mrs. Brown suggested that he should steal a police notice. But he dared not, being afraid of going to prison. She then suggested that he make one just like a police notice. He said he was not a policeman and couldn’t use the word “police”. He decided that he must find a way out and started thinking hard. For several days the smell of paint filled the house. One night he showed his wife a new notice board. It was painted in white letters on a blue board:　

 Polite Notice: No Parking 

 “Oh,” Mrs. Brown said, “but you told me you weren’t going to use the word ‘police’. That’s exactly like a police notice.”　　

“Is it?” he asked. “Look again.”　　

She began to laugh, “You are really rather clever.”