Why is VACUUM ANALYZE <table> so slow?

I'm running PG 7.2.2 on RH Linux 8.0.

I'd like to know why "VACUUM ANALYZE <table>" is extemely slow (hours) for
certain tables. Here's what the log file shows when I run this command on
my "employees" table, which has just 5 columns and 55 records:

VACUUM ANALYZE employees

DEBUG: --Relation employees--
DEBUG: index employees_pkey: Pages 2; Tuples 55: Deleted 0.
CPU 0.00s/0.00u sec elapsed 0.00 sec.
DEBUG: index emp_dept_id_idx: Pages 2; Tuples 55: Deleted 0.
CPU 0.00s/0.00u sec elapsed 0.00 sec.
DEBUG: index emp_emp_num_idx: Pages 2; Tuples 55: Deleted 0.
CPU 0.00s/0.00u sec elapsed 0.00 sec.
DEBUG: recycled transaction log file 00000000000000CC
DEBUG: geqo_main: using edge recombination crossover [ERX]

(When I get a chance I will enable timestamping of log file entries.)

Thanks for any insight. Please reply to me personally (david(at)shadovitz(dot)com)
as well as to the list.

-David