John the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He

had  several  hundred young layers (hens), called

"pullets" and eight or  ten  roosters, whose job was

to fertilize the eggs.

   The farmer kept  records and any rooster that

didn't perform went into  the soup pot and was

replaced.  That took an awful lot of his time  so he

bought a set of tiny  bells and attached them to his

roosters.  Each bell had a  different tone  so John

could tell from a  distance, which rooster was

performing. Now he could sit on the  porch and fill

out an efficiency report simply by listening to the

bells.

    The farmer's favorite rooster was old Butch, and a

very fine specimen he  was, too. But one particular

morning  John noticed old Butch's bell  hadn't rung at

all!  John went to  investigate. The other  roosters

were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The  pullets,

hearing  the roosters coming, would  run for cover.

   But to Farmer John's amazement, Butch had his bell

in his beak so it  couldn't ring.  He'd  sneak up on a

pullet, do his job and walk on  to the next one.

  John was so proud of Butch, he entered him in the

Renfrew County  Fair and Butch became an overnight

sensation among the  judges.   The result... The

judges not only awarded Butch the No Bell Piece Prize

but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.

   Clearly Butch was a politician in the making. Who

else but a  politician could  figure out how to win

two of the most highly coveted  awards on our planet

by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and

screwing them when they weren't paying attention?