young layers (hens), also called 'pullets,' and ten roosters, whose job it
was to fertilize the eggs. The farmer written 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, a very fine specimen. But on
this particular morning, John noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all..
the place with bells-a-ringing. The pullets, upon 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'd 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 he became an overnight sensation among the judges.
The result... The judges not only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize,
but they awarded him the PulletSurprise Award as well.
Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making: who else but a
pathological 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.
By the way: vote carefully this year. The bells are not always audible...
