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 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 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, 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 County Fair and he
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.