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
traveler 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 which led 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 reader. "Do you have
any water?"
Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there". The man pointed
to a
place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate. "Come on in."
"How about my friend here?" the traveler 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 traveler filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, and 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 waiting for them.
"What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.
"This is Heaven," was the answer.
"Well, that's confusing," the traveler 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. I can see how you might think so, but we're just
happy that
they screen out the folks who'll leave their best friends behind."
...author unknown
