The Flail From Heaven

A farmer was once going out to plow with a pair of oxen. When he got to the field, both animals' horns began to grow, and they kept on growing. When he wanted to go home, the horns were so big that the oxen could not fit through the gate.

Just then, a butcher came by. The farmer gave him the oxen and made a deal: the farmer would bring the butcher a measure of turnip seeds, and the butcher would pay him one silver coin for each seed. That was a good deal!

The farmer went home, got the seeds, and carried them to the butcher on his back. On the way, he lost one seed from the bag. The butcher paid him fairly, and if the farmer had not lost that seed, he would have had one more coin.

Meanwhile, on his way back, the lost seed had grown into a tree that reached all the way to the sky. The farmer thought, "Since I have the chance, I must see what the angels are doing up there!" So he climbed up and saw the angels threshing oats. He watched them.

While he watched, he noticed that the tree he was standing on began to wobble. He looked down and saw someone about to cut it down. "If I fall from here, that would be bad," he thought.

In his trouble, he did not know how to save himself any better than by taking some oat chaff that lay in heaps, twisting it into a rope. He also grabbed a hoe and a flail that were lying around in heaven, and lowered himself with the rope.

But he landed right in the middle of a deep, deep hole. Luckily, he had brought the hoe. He used it to carve steps and climbed out. He took the flail with him as proof of his adventure, so no one could doubt his story.