After breakfast, the neighbor went to the back porch to watch his dogs frolic in the yard. Like a proud father he watched them show their strength as they played tug-o-war with a rubber bone. It was a beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky, and the neighbor felt himself blush when he heard himself say, “It is a morning like this that makes me feel good to be alive!” He lit a cigarette and leisurely stretched out his arms over his head. But the good feeling that he thought he had began to fade when he saw and heard something move on the porch next door. To his horror, once again, he saw the dog next door. It was standing on its hind legs as it swept the deck of its master’s porch with a push broom. The dog was handy with the push broom as it swept eagerly, conscientiously around the corners of the porch, gathering the loose debris into a small tidy pile. The dog next door even stopped sweeping for a second to give a mock salute with its paw as a greeting to the neighbor.
The neighbor’s cigarette dropped from his mouth as he stared with disbelief at the dog. He ran with hysteria into the house and shouted to the woman who loved and lived with him what he had just seen. The neighbor was so upset that he pulled her out to the porch telling her to see the dog next door sweeping with a push broom. When she came outside to look, the dog was no longer sweeping, but was asleep with a gnawed rubber ball at its side. The woman who loved and lived with him began to laugh, for she thought his hysteria was a practical joke. She even complimented him for his silly sense of humor, she never knew that he could be so funny. The neighbor couldn’t tell her that he was serious. He worried about his state of mind, but did feel flattered when she told him that he had a silly sense of humor. The rest of the day he felt so ill that he stayed in bed to rest. He couldn’t get his mind off the strange occurrences with the dog next door. The idea came to him that maybe he needed a vacation, to take a break from working such long and busy days.