THE TALE OF THE WORTHY ROOSTER

Thanks to Alison and Ros for this one. It was too good to delete.

John the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young (hens) layers, 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 sets 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.

So, now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells. The farmers favorite rooster was old Butch, a very fine specimen he was, too. But on this articular 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 proceed to the next one. John was so proud of Butch, he entered him in the county fair, where 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 could figure out howto 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.