[Pete.]

John the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several

hundred young layers (hens), called "pullets", and ten roosters, whose job it

was to fertilize the eggs (for you city folks).

The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into

the soup pot and was replaced. That record keepin' 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 on this 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, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so

it couldn't ring.

He would sneak up on a pullet, do his job and, walk on to the next one.

John was so proud of old 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 old Butch the No Bell Piece

Prize but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.

Clearly old 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?