Once upon a time

there was a man who told tall tales.
He stood at the edge of the village
and would tell his stories to anyone who would listen
he'd tell them tall
he'd tell them wild
and the people laughed
as he boasted and bragged
as he bragged and he boasted they'd laugh.
one day he claimed:
I can jump higher than any man can
higher than the rabbits or the fish
I can jump higher than the trees
and this is how I learned
on the first day of the year I dug a hole
as deep as my knees
and every day for a month,
I would practice jumping out from the hole.
the next month I dug a hole to my mid-thigh
and every of that month
I would practice jumping out from the hole.
The third month of the year I dug the hole deeper
the edge of the hole reached my hip
and each day for that month, I'd jump out.
the fourth month- you can guess what I did
I dug a hole just as deep as my waist
and every day I jumped out.
the fifth month- things were much the same
the fifth hole reached my ribs,
and the next month my chest
and the seventh hole was best
for it was as deep as my shoulders-
and each day that year I'd jump out of the hole
as it got deeper and deeper until,
at the end of the ninth month I could jump
from a hole that was as tall as me.
The villagers were stunned- how could it be?
And a voice from the crowd-
a disgruntled young man
tired of hearing tall tales
said to the people, let's see if he can
jump out of a hole as high as he is.
So they all dug a hole
and they put the man in it
and could he jump out? No he couldn't
and they all walked away
and they left him there
and the young man was the one who suggested:
that the tall-tale-teller would stay in the hole
until he could jump his way out