Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog Summary

Harold K. Bullard and his dog sit on a park bench and Harold tells his life story to a disinterested stranger. Annoyed, the stranger leaves and finds another bench but Bullard and his dog find him again and Bullard asks the stranger what his profession is. The stranger responds that he hasn't worked since the age of nine. The stranger then tells a story.

In 1879, Thomas Edison lived in the stranger's neighborhood. The stranger got to know Edison when he became friends with Edison's dog, Sparky. One day, Edison tells the boy about the intelligence analyzer, something he's inventing during the process of trying to invent the light bulb. The intelligence analyzer's needle goes higher the more intelligent the person is. The boy stranger asks Edison to try the analyzer on Sparky the dog and the needle...