How are the men Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall" good neighbors?

It is possible to argue that the two men depicted in
Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Walls” are genuinely good neighbors.  Here is some evidence
in support of that argument.

• The speaker of the
  poem indicates that he has made repairs to the wall even before involving his
  neighbor:

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I have come . . . and made
repair

Where they [that is, hunters] have left not one
stone on a stone.
(6-7)

• Apparently
  the speaker of the poem is the one who tells the neighbor that the wall needs repair,
  even though it is the speaker who later expresses some skepticism about the need for
  walls:

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I let my neighbor know beyond the
hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the
line

And set the wall between us once again.
(12-14)

• The
  passage just quoted suggests that the speaker has to go to some trouble to alert the
  neighbor, since the neighbor lives “beyond the hill.” The speaker’s efforts to inform
  the neighbor about something that concerns the neighbor suggests the speaker’s genuinely
  neighborly attitudes.


• The speaker uses phrasing that
  might at first suggest distance and separation between the two men, but that separation
  is only physical and literal. It is not figurative or essential, nor does it suggest a
  lack of neighborly feelings. Indeed, the fact that they are separated by the wall – in
  order to work on it together – actually implies the bond that exists between
  them:

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. . . on a day we meet to walk the
line

And set the wall between us once
again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.
(13-15)

• The fact
  that they walk side-by-side increases our sense of their mutual
  cooperation. If they were not truly neighborly, each could have worked on a different
  section of the wall, separate from the other.


• The two
  neighbors apparently share a sense of humor, as when they tell the stones, “‘Stay where
  you are until our backs [emphasis added] are turned.” It isn’t one
  man making this joke; it is both of them.


• The speaker of
  the poem doesn’t directly or vigorously dispute his neighbor’s opinions about walls; he
  merely asks him about it and perhaps even teases him about it
  (27-36).


• Even if the speaker seriously disagrees with his
  neighbor’s opinion (and his actions suggest otherwise), notice that he does not say, in
  line 35, “I don’t like walls” but instead says “‘Something there is
  that doesn’t like a wall’” (emphasis added).


• The way the
  speaker describes his neighbor, when carrying rocks, as resembling “an old-stone savage
  armed” (40) suggests joking affection rather than any real
  mockery.


• The speaker may actually admire his neighbor for
  honoring his father's beliefs (43).


• If there is mockery
  of the neighbor's slight pride in lines 44-45, it is very gentle and perhaps even
  affectionate mockery.

For all these reasons,
then, one can argue that the two men depicted in the poem are genuinely good
neighbors.