A man and his dog were
walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it
suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
He remembered dying, and
that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered
where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came
to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked
like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by
a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before
it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl,
and the street that led to the gate looked like
pure gold. He and the
dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man
at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough,
he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'
'This is Heaven, sir,'
the man answered.
'Wow! Would you happen
to have some water?' the man asked.
'Of course, sir. Come
right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.'
The man gestured, and
the gate began to open.
'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveller asked.
'I'm sorry, sir, but we
don't accept pets.'
The man thought a moment
and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he
had been going with his dog.
After another long walk,
and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading
through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed.
There was no fence.
As he approached the gate,
he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
'Excuse me!' he called
to the man. 'Do you have any water?'
'Yeah, sure, there's a
pump over there, come on in.'
'How about my friend here?'
the traveller gestured to the dog.
'There should be a bowl
by the pump.'
They went through the
gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with
a bowl beside it.
The traveller filled the
water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to
the dog.
When they were full, he
and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the
tree.
'What do you call this
place?' the traveller asked.
'This is Heaven,' he answered.
'Well, that's confusing,'
the traveller said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven,
too.'
'Oh, you mean the place
with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell.'
'Doesn't it make you mad
for them to use your name like that?'
'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'
