Once upon a time a boy went for a walk with his uncle along a country road. As they walked along the boy happened to notice that atop a thirty foot high telephone pole a rock, which appeared to weigh at least twenty pounds, was perched.
"How did that get there?" the boy inquired of his uncle.
"Well, lad," the uncle replied, "a strong wind once blew and picked up the rock and dropped it atop that pole."
This seemed very improbable to the boy, but who was he to question his wise uncle?
They walked a little further and the boy began to notice that on the top of each fence post they passed there was a turtle. "How did those get there?" the boy asked his uncle, "Did someone put them there?"
"No, my good boy," the uncle replied. "Apparently there were long boards that leaned against the poles to form ramps which enabled the turtles to wander to the top."
This also seemed unlikely to the child and he took on a puzzled expression. "Are you sure somebody didn't put the turtles there, uncle?"
"Of course," the man replied confidently. People used to think that turtles were placed atop posts deliberately, but we've come to see that that's all superstitious nonsense that simply requires too much faith to believe. We know better today. The turtles used ramps."
"But there aren't any ramps anywhere around. What happened to them?" the child asked disingenuously.
"They obviously must have blown away," replied his sagacious uncle.
The boy was perplexed. He thought that it took an awfully strong dose of credulity to think that turtles climbed ramps to get to the tops of the fence posts.
"What's the matter?" his uncle asked perceiving his consternation.
"Well, I just have one more question," the youngster answered. "How did the ramps get there in the first place?"
The moral of the story is that when one encounters something as improbable as turtles on posts or stones atop a pole, it's safe to assume they didn't get there by accident.
