A man returned home after traveling abroad, eager to brag about his adventures.
"I've seen things you've never imagined, not even in your dreams," he told his friends. "Once I saw the longest ship afloat. The captain was standing at the stern, and he gave the cabin boy a message to take to the first mate, who stood at the bow. The lad was only ten when he started; his white beard swabbed the deck by the time he'd reached the mast. I didn't wait to see if he lived long enough to make it the rest of the way."
His friends looked at each other. One said:
"That's nothing. You didn't need to leave home to find sights like that. Why, in the forest just over that ridge, I've seen a tree so tall it poked a hole in the sky. Once a bird tried to fly over the top, but by the time it reached just the third branch from the bottom, it was too old to go any further. So it stopped and laid and egg, and told its chick to continue the journey. Seven generations of birds have been flying towards the top, and they're not halfway yet."
"That's ridiculous," the traveller scoffed. "I've never heard such a lie in my life."
"If that's the case," asked his friend, "where did you get the tree to make the mast for your ship?"
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