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-Following text is added for more stable work:
-
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-                    _                 _   ______
-        /\         (_)               | | |  ____|
-       /  \   _ __  _ _ __ ___   __ _| | | |__ __ _ _ __ _ __ ___
-      / /\ \ | '_ \| | '_ ` _ \ / _` | | |  __/ _` | '__| '_ ` _ \
-     / ____ \| | | | | | | | | | (_| | | | | | (_| | |  | | | | | |
-    /_/    \_\_| |_|_|_| |_| |_|\__,_|_| |_|  \__,_|_|  |_| |_| |_|
-                                          by George Orwell
-
-
-
-    Chapter I
-
-
-
-Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but
-was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light
-from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard,
-kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer
-from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where
-Mrs. Jones was already snoring.
-
-As soon as the light in the bedroom went out there was a stirring and a
-fluttering all through the farm buildings. Word had gone round during the
-day that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had had a strange dream
-on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals.
-It had been agreed that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as
-Mr. Jones was safely out of the way. Old Major (so he was always called,
-though the name under which he had been exhibited was Willingdon Beauty)
-was so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose
-an hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say.
-
-At one end of the big barn, on a sort of raised platform, Major was
-already ensconced on his bed of straw, under a lantern which hung from a
-beam. He was twelve years old and had lately grown rather stout, but he
-was still a majestic-looking pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in
-spite of the fact that his tushes had never been cut. Before long the
-other animals began to arrive and make themselves comfortable after their
-different fashions. First came the three dogs, Bluebell, Jessie, and
-Pincher, and then the pigs, who settled down in the straw immediately in
-front of the platform. The hens perched themselves on the window-sills,
-the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters, the sheep and cows lay down
-behind the pigs and began to chew the cud. The two cart-horses, Boxer and
-Clover, came in together, walking very slowly and setting down their vast
-hairy hoofs with great care lest there should be some small animal
-concealed in the straw. Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching
-middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal.
-Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as
-any two ordinary horses put together. A white stripe down his nose gave
-him a somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact he was not of first-rate
-intelligence, but he was universally respected for his steadiness of
-character and tremendous powers of work. After the horses came Muriel,
-the white goat, and Benjamin, the donkey. Benjamin was the oldest animal
-on the farm, and the worst tempered. He seldom talked, and when he did, it
-was usually to make some cynical remark--for instance, he would say that
-God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner
-have had no tail and no flies. Alone among the animals on the farm he
-never laughed. If asked why, he would say that he saw nothing to laugh at.
-Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the
-two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock
-beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.
-
-The two horses had just lain down when a brood of ducklings, which had
-lost their mother, filed into the barn, cheeping feebly and wandering from
-side to side to find some place where they would not be trodden on. Clover
-made a sort of wall round them with her great foreleg, and the ducklings
-nestled down inside it and promptly fell asleep. At the last moment
-Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came
-mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar. She took a place near the
-front and began flirting her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the
-red ribbons it was plaited with. Last of all came the cat, who looked
-round, as usual, for the warmest place, and finally squeezed herself in
-between Boxer and Clover; there she purred contentedly throughout Major's
-speech without listening to a word of what he was saying.
-
-All the animals were now present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept
-on a perch behind the back door. When Major saw that they had all made
-themselves comfortable and were waiting attentively, he cleared his throat
-and began:
-
-"Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last
-night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say
-first. I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months
-longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom
-as I have acquired. I have had a long life, I have had much time for
-thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I
-understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now
-living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you.
-
-"Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it:
-our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given
-just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us
-who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength;
-and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are
-slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning
-of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is
-free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.
-
-"But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land
-of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell
-upon it? No, comrades, a thousand times no! The soil of England is
-fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance
-to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it. This
-single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of
-sheep--and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now
-almost beyond our imagining. Why then do we continue in this miserable
-condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen
-from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our
-problems. It is summed up in a single word--Man. Man is the only real
-enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and
-overwork is abolished for ever.
-
-"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not
-give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he
-cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the
-animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that
-will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our
-labour tills the soil, our dung fertilises it, and yet there is not one of
-us that owns more than his bare skin. You cows that I see before me, how
-many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year?
-And what has happened to that milk which should have been breeding up
-sturdy calves? Every drop of it has gone down the throats of our enemies.
-And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year, and how many
-of those eggs ever hatched into chickens? The rest have all gone to market
-to bring in money for Jones and his men. And you, Clover, where are those
-four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your
-old age? Each was sold at a year old--you will never see one of them
-again. In return for your four confinements and all your labour in the
-fields, what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall?
-
-"And even the miserable lives we lead are not allowed to reach their
-natural span. For myself I do not grumble, for I am one of the lucky ones.
-I am twelve years old and have had over four hundred children. Such is the
-natural life of a pig. But no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end.
-You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will
-scream your lives out at the block within a year. To that horror we all
-must come--cows, pigs, hens, sheep, everyone. Even the horses and the dogs
-have no better fate. You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of
-yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut
-your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds. As for the dogs, when
-they grow old and toothless, Jones ties a brick round their necks and
-drowns them in the nearest pond.
-
-"Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life
-of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? Only get rid of Man, and
-the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could
-become rich and free. What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body
-and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you,
-comrades: Rebellion! I do not know when that Rebellion will come, it might
-be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as surely as I see this
-straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your
-eyes on that, comrades, throughout the short remainder of your lives! And
-above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so
-that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious.
-
-"And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument
-must lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man and the
-animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the
-prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man serves the interests of no
-creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity,
-perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are
-comrades."
-
-At this moment there was a tremendous uproar. While Major was speaking
-four large rats had crept out of their holes and were sitting on their
-hindquarters, listening to him. The dogs had suddenly caught sight of
-them, and it was only by a swift dash for their holes that the rats saved
-their lives. Major raised his trotter for silence.
-
-"Comrades," he said, "here is a point that must be settled. The wild
-creatures, such as rats and rabbits--are they our friends or our enemies?
-Let us put it to the vote. I propose this question to the meeting: Are
-rats comrades?"
-
-The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority
-that rats were comrades. There were only four dissentients, the three dogs
-and the cat, who was afterwards discovered to have voted on both sides.
-Major continued:
-
-"I have little more to say. I merely repeat, remember always your duty of
-enmity towards Man and all his ways. Whatever goes upon two legs is an
-enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. And
-remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble
-him. Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices. No animal
-must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink
-alcohol, or smoke tobacco, or touch money, or engage in trade. All the
-habits of Man are evil. And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over
-his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. No
-animal must ever kill any other animal. All animals are equal.
-
-"And now, comrades, I will tell you about my dream of last night. I cannot
-describe that dream to you. It was a dream of the earth as it will be when
-Man has vanished. But it reminded me of something that I had long
-forgotten. Many years ago, when I was a little pig, my mother and the
-other sows used to sing an old song of which they knew only the tune and
-the first three words. I had known that tune in my infancy, but it had
-long since passed out of my mind. Last night, however, it came back to me
-in my dream. And what is more, the words of the song also came back-words,
-I am certain, which were sung by the animals of long ago and have been
-lost to memory for generations. I will sing you that song now, comrades.
-I am old and my voice is hoarse, but when I have taught you the tune, you
-can sing it better for yourselves. It is called 'Beasts of England'."
-
-Old Major cleared his throat and began to sing. As he had said, his voice
-was hoarse, but he sang well enough, and it was a stirring tune, something
-between 'Clementine' and 'La Cucaracha'. The words ran:
-
-Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
-Beasts of every land and clime,
-Hearken to my joyful tidings
-Of the golden future time.
-
-Soon or late the day is coming,
-Tyrant Man shall be o'erthrown,
-And the fruitful fields of England
-Shall be trod by beasts alone.
-
-Rings shall vanish from our noses,
-And the harness from our back,
-Bit and spur shall rust forever,
-Cruel whips no more shall crack.
-
-Riches more than mind can picture,
-Wheat and barley, oats and hay,
-Clover, beans, and mangel-wurzels
-Shall be ours upon that day.
-
-Bright will shine the fields of England,
-Purer shall its waters be,
-Sweeter yet shall blow its breezes
-On the day that sets us free.
-
-For that day we all must labour,
-Though we die before it break;
-Cows and horses, geese and turkeys,
-All must toil for freedom's sake.
-
-Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
-Beasts of every land and clime,
-Hearken well and spread my tidings
-Of the golden future time.
-
-
-The singing of this song threw the animals into the wildest excitement.
-Almost before Major had reached the end, they had begun singing it for
-themselves. Even the stupidest of them had already picked up the tune and
-a few of the words, and as for the clever ones, such as the pigs and dogs,
-they had the entire song by heart within a few minutes. And then, after a
-few preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into 'Beasts of England' in
-tremendous unison. The cows lowed it, the dogs whined it, the sheep
-bleated it, the horses whinnied it, the ducks quacked it. They were so
-delighted with the song that they sang it right through five times in
-succession, and might have continued singing it all night if they had not
-been interrupted.
-
-Unfortunately, the uproar awoke Mr. Jones, who sprang out of bed, making
-sure that there was a fox in the yard. He seized the gun which always
-stood in a corner of his bedroom, and let fly a charge of number 6 shot
-into the darkness. The pellets buried themselves in the wall of the barn
-and the meeting broke up hurriedly. Everyone fled to his own
-sleeping-place. The birds jumped on to their perches, the animals settled
-down in the straw, and the whole farm was asleep in a moment.
-
-
-
-
-    Chapter II
-
-
-
-Three nights later old Major died peacefully in his sleep. His body was
-buried at the foot of the orchard.
-
-This was early in March. During the next three months there was much
-secret activity. Major's speech had given to the more intelligent animals
-on the farm a completely new outlook on life. They did not know when the
-Rebellion predicted by Major would take place, they had no reason for
-thinking that it would be within their own lifetime, but they saw clearly
-that it was their duty to prepare for it. The work of teaching and
-organising the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally
-recognised as being the cleverest of the animals. Pre-eminent among the
-pigs were two young boars named Snowball and Napoleon, whom Mr. Jones was
-breeding up for sale. Napoleon was a large, rather fierce-looking
-Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not much of a talker, but
-with a reputation for getting his own way. Snowball was a more vivacious
-pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not
-considered to have the same depth of character. All the other male pigs on
-the farm were porkers. The best known among them was a small fat pig named
-Squealer, with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a
-shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some
-difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whisking
-his tail which was somehow very persuasive. The others said of Squealer
-that he could turn black into white.
-
-These three had elaborated old Major's teachings into a complete system of
-thought, to which they gave the name of Animalism. Several nights a week,
-after Mr. Jones was asleep, they held secret meetings in the barn and
-expounded the principles of Animalism to the others. At the beginning they
-met with much stupidity and apathy. Some of the animals talked of the duty
-of loyalty to Mr. Jones, whom they referred to as "Master," or made
-elementary remarks such as "Mr. Jones feeds us. If he were gone, we should
-starve to death." Others asked such questions as "Why should we care what
-happens after we are dead?" or "If this Rebellion is to happen anyway,
-what difference does it make whether we work for it or not?", and the pigs
-had great difficulty in making them see that this was contrary to the
-spirit of Animalism. The stupidest questions of all were asked by Mollie,
-the white mare. The very first question she asked Snowball was: "Will
-there still be sugar after the Rebellion?"
-
-"No," said Snowball firmly. "We have no means of making sugar on this
-farm. Besides, you do not need sugar. You will have all the oats and hay
-you want."
-
-"And shall I still be allowed to wear ribbons in my mane?" asked Mollie.
-
-"Comrade," said Snowball, "those ribbons that you are so devoted to are
-the badge of slavery. Can you not understand that liberty is worth more
-than ribbons?"
-
-Mollie agreed, but she did not sound very convinced.
-
-The pigs had an even harder struggle to counteract the lies put about by
-Moses, the tame raven. Moses, who was Mr. Jones's especial pet, was a spy
-and a tale-bearer, but he was also a clever talker. He claimed to know of
-the existence of a mysterious country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which
-all animals went when they died. It was situated somewhere up in the sky,
-a little distance beyond the clouds, Moses said. In Sugarcandy Mountain it
-was Sunday seven days a week, clover was in season all the year round, and
-lump sugar and linseed cake grew on the hedges. The animals hated Moses
-because he told tales and did no work, but some of them believed in
-Sugarcandy Mountain, and the pigs had to argue very hard to persuade them
-that there was no such place.
-
-Their most faithful disciples were the two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover.
-These two had great difficulty in thinking anything out for themselves,
-but having once accepted the pigs as their teachers, they absorbed
-everything that they were told, and passed it on to the other animals by
-simple arguments. They were unfailing in their attendance at the secret
-meetings in the barn, and led the singing of 'Beasts of England', with
-which the meetings always ended.
-
-Now, as it turned out, the Rebellion was achieved much earlier and more
-easily than anyone had expected. In past years Mr. Jones, although a hard
-master, had been a capable farmer, but of late he had fallen on evil days.
-He had become much disheartened after losing money in a lawsuit, and had
-taken to drinking more than was good for him. For whole days at a time he
-would lounge in his Windsor chair in the kitchen, reading the newspapers,
-drinking, and occasionally feeding Moses on crusts of bread soaked in
-beer. His men were idle and dishonest, the fields were full of weeds, the
-buildings wanted roofing, the hedges were neglected, and the animals were
-underfed.
-
-June came and the hay was almost ready for cutting. On Midsummer's Eve,
-which was a Saturday, Mr. Jones went into Willingdon and got so drunk at
-the Red Lion that he did not come back till midday on Sunday. The men had
-milked the cows in the early morning and then had gone out rabbiting,
-without bothering to feed the animals. When Mr. Jones got back he
-immediately went to sleep on the drawing-room sofa with the News of the
-World over his face, so that when evening came, the animals were still
-unfed. At last they could stand it no longer. One of the cows broke in the
-door of the store-shed with her horn and all the animals began to help
-themselves from the bins. It was just then that Mr. Jones woke up. The
-next moment he and his four men were in the store-shed with whips in their
-hands, lashing out in all directions. This was more than the hungry
-animals could bear. With one accord, though nothing of the kind had been
-planned beforehand, they flung themselves upon their tormentors. Jones and
-his men suddenly found themselves being butted and kicked from all sides.
-The situation was quite out of their control. They had never seen animals
-behave like this before, and this sudden uprising of creatures whom they
-were used to thrashing and maltreating just as they chose, frightened them
-almost out of their wits. After only a moment or two they gave up trying
-to defend themselves and took to their heels. A minute later all five of
-them were in full flight down the cart-track that led to the main road,
-with the animals pursuing them in triumph.
-
-Mrs. Jones looked out of the bedroom window, saw what was happening,
-hurriedly flung a few possessions into a carpet bag, and slipped out of
-the farm by another way. Moses sprang off his perch and flapped after her,
-croaking loudly. Meanwhile the animals had chased Jones and his men out on
-to the road and slammed the five-barred gate behind them. And so, almost
-before they knew what was happening, the Rebellion had been successfully
-carried through: Jones was expelled, and the Manor Farm was theirs.
-
-For the first few minutes the animals could hardly believe in their good
-fortune. Their first act was to gallop in a body right round the
-boundaries of the farm, as though to make quite sure that no human being
-was hiding anywhere upon it; then they raced back to the farm buildings to
-wipe out the last traces of Jones's hated reign. The harness-room at the
-end of the stables was broken open; the bits, the nose-rings, the
-dog-chains, the cruel knives with which Mr. Jones had been used to
-castrate the pigs and lambs, were all flung down the well. The reins, the
-halters, the blinkers, the degrading nosebags, were thrown on to the
-rubbish fire which was burning in the yard. So were the whips. All the
-animals capered with joy when they saw the whips going up in flames.
-Snowball also threw on to the fire the ribbons with which the horses'
-manes and tails had usually been decorated on market days.
-
-"Ribbons," he said, "should be considered as clothes, which are the mark
-of a human being. All animals should go naked."
-
-When Boxer heard this he fetched the small straw hat which he wore in
-summer to keep the flies out of his ears, and flung it on to the fire with
-the rest.
-
-In a very little while the animals had destroyed everything that reminded
-them of Mr. Jones. Napoleon then led them back to the store-shed and
-served out a double ration of corn to everybody, with two biscuits for
-each dog. Then they sang 'Beasts of England' from end to end seven times
-running, and after that they settled down for the night and slept as they
-had never slept before.
-
-But they woke at dawn as usual, and suddenly remembering the glorious
-thing that had happened, they all raced out into the pasture together. A
-little way down the pasture there was a knoll that commanded a view of
-most of the farm. The animals rushed to the top of it and gazed round them
-in the clear morning light. Yes, it was theirs--everything that they could
-see was theirs! In the ecstasy of that thought they gambolled round and
-round, they hurled themselves into the air in great leaps of excitement.
-They rolled in the dew, they cropped mouthfuls of the sweet summer grass,
-they kicked up clods of the black earth and snuffed its rich scent. Then
-they made a tour of inspection of the whole farm and surveyed with
-speechless admiration the ploughland, the hayfield, the orchard, the pool,
-the spinney. It was as though they had never seen these things before, and
-even now they could hardly believe that it was all their own.
-
-Then they filed back to the farm buildings and halted in silence outside
-the door of the farmhouse. That was theirs too, but they were frightened
-to go inside. After a moment, however, Snowball and Napoleon butted the
-door open with their shoulders and the animals entered in single file,
-walking with the utmost care for fear of disturbing anything. They tiptoed
-from room to room, afraid to speak above a whisper and gazing with a kind
-of awe at the unbelievable luxury, at the beds with their feather
-mattresses, the looking-glasses, the horsehair sofa, the Brussels carpet,
-the lithograph of Queen Victoria over the drawing-room mantelpiece. They
-were just coming down the stairs when Mollie was discovered to be missing.
-Going back, the others found that she had remained behind in the best
-bedroom. She had taken a piece of blue ribbon from Mrs. Jones's
-dressing-table, and was holding it against her shoulder and admiring
-herself in the glass in a very foolish manner. The others reproached her
-sharply, and they went outside. Some hams hanging in the kitchen were
-taken out for burial, and the barrel of beer in the scullery was stove in
-with a kick from Boxer's hoof, otherwise nothing in the house was touched.
-A unanimous resolution was passed on the spot that the farmhouse should be
-preserved as a museum. All were agreed that no animal must ever live there.
-
-The animals had their breakfast, and then Snowball and Napoleon called
-them together again.
-
-"Comrades," said Snowball, "it is half-past six and we have a long day
-before us. Today we begin the hay harvest. But there is another matter
-that must be attended to first."
-
-The pigs now revealed that during the past three months they had taught
-themselves to read and write from an old spelling book which had belonged
-to Mr. Jones's children and which had been thrown on the rubbish heap.
-Napoleon sent for pots of black and white paint and led the way down to
-the five-barred gate that gave on to the main road. Then Snowball (for it
-was Snowball who was best at writing) took a brush between the two
-knuckles of his trotter, painted out MANOR FARM from the top bar of the
-gate and in its place painted ANIMAL FARM. This was to be the name of the
-farm from now onwards. After this they went back to the farm buildings,
-where Snowball and Napoleon sent for a ladder which they caused to be set
-against the end wall of the big barn. They explained that by their studies
-of the past three months the pigs had succeeded in reducing the principles
-of Animalism to Seven Commandments. These Seven Commandments would now be
-inscribed on the wall; they would form an unalterable law by which all the
-animals on Animal Farm must live for ever after. With some difficulty
-(for it is not easy for a pig to balance himself on a ladder) Snowball
-climbed up and set to work, with Squealer a few rungs below him holding
-the paint-pot. The Commandments were written on the tarred wall in great
-white letters that could be read thirty yards away. They ran thus:
-
-
-THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
-
-1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
-2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
-3. No animal shall wear clothes.
-4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
-5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
-6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
-7. All animals are equal.
-
-
-It was very neatly written, and except that "friend" was written "freind"
-and one of the "S's" was the wrong way round, the spelling was correct all
-the way through. Snowball read it aloud for the benefit of the others. All
-the animals nodded in complete agreement, and the cleverer ones at once
-began to learn the Commandments by heart.
-
-"Now, comrades," cried Snowball, throwing down the paint-brush, "to the
-hayfield! Let us make it a point of honour to get in the harvest more
-quickly than Jones and his men could do."
-
-But at this moment the three cows, who had seemed uneasy for some time
-past, set up a loud lowing. They had not been milked for twenty-four
-hours, and their udders were almost bursting. After a little thought, the
-pigs sent for buckets and milked the cows fairly successfully, their
-trotters being well adapted to this task. Soon there were five buckets of
-frothing creamy milk at which many of the animals looked with considerable
-interest.
-
-"What is going to happen to all that milk?" said someone.
-
-"Jones used sometimes to mix some of it in our mash," said one of the hens.
-
-"Never mind the milk, comrades!" cried Napoleon, placing himself in front
-of the buckets. "That will be attended to. The harvest is more important.
-Comrade Snowball will lead the way. I shall follow in a few minutes.
-Forward, comrades! The hay is waiting."
-
-So the animals trooped down to the hayfield to begin the harvest, and when
-they came back in the evening it was noticed that the milk had disappeared.
-
-
-
-
-    Chapter III
-
-
-
-How they toiled and sweated to get the hay in! But their efforts were
-rewarded, for the harvest was an even bigger success than they had hoped.
-
-Sometimes the work was hard; the implements had been designed for human
-beings and not for animals, and it was a great drawback that no animal was
-able to use any tool that involved standing on his hind legs. But the pigs
-were so clever that they could think of a way round every difficulty. As
-for the horses, they knew every inch of the field, and in fact understood
-the business of mowing and raking far better than Jones and his men had
-ever done. The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the
-others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should
-assume the leadership. Boxer and Clover would harness themselves to the
-cutter or the horse-rake (no bits or reins were needed in these days, of
-course) and tramp steadily round and round the field with a pig walking
-behind and calling out "Gee up, comrade!" or "Whoa back, comrade!" as the
-case might be. And every animal down to the humblest worked at turning the
-hay and gathering it. Even the ducks and hens toiled to and fro all day in
-the sun, carrying tiny wisps of hay in their beaks. In the end they
-finished the harvest in two days' less time than it had usually taken
-Jones and his men. Moreover, it was the biggest harvest that the farm had
-ever seen. There was no wastage whatever; the hens and ducks with their
-sharp eyes had gathered up the very last stalk. And not an animal on the
-farm had stolen so much as a mouthful.
-
-All through that summer the work of the farm went like clockwork. The
-animals were happy as they had never conceived it possible to be. Every
-mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly
-their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out
-to them by a grudging master. With the worthless parasitical human beings
-gone, there was more for everyone to eat. There was more leisure too,
-inexperienced though the animals were. They met with many difficulties--for
-instance, later in the year, when they harvested the corn, they had to
-tread it out in the ancient style and blow away the chaff with their
-breath, since the farm possessed no threshing machine--but the pigs with
-their cleverness and Boxer with his tremendous muscles always pulled them
-through. Boxer was the admiration of everybody. He had been a hard worker
-even in Jones's time, but now he seemed more like three horses than one;
-there were days when the entire work of the farm seemed to rest on his
-mighty shoulders. From morning to night he was pushing and pulling, always
-at the spot where the work was hardest. He had made an arrangement with
-one of the cockerels to call him in the mornings half an hour earlier than
-anyone else, and would put in some volunteer labour at whatever seemed to
-be most needed, before the regular day's work began. His answer to every
-problem, every setback, was "I will work harder!"--which he had adopted as
-his personal motto.
-
-But everyone worked according to his capacity. The hens and ducks, for
-instance, saved five bushels of corn at the harvest by gathering up the
-stray grains. Nobody stole, nobody grumbled over his rations, the
-quarrelling and biting and jealousy which had been normal features of life
-in the old days had almost disappeared. Nobody shirked--or almost nobody.
-Mollie, it was true, was not good at getting up in the mornings, and had a
-way of leaving work early on the ground that there was a stone in her
-hoof. And the behaviour of the cat was somewhat peculiar. It was soon
-noticed that when there was work to be done the cat could never be found.
-She would vanish for hours on end, and then reappear at meal-times, or in
-the evening after work was over, as though nothing had happened. But she
-always made such excellent excuses, and purred so affectionately, that it
-was impossible not to believe in her good intentions. Old Benjamin, the
-donkey, seemed quite unchanged since the Rebellion. He did his work in the
-same slow obstinate way as he had done it in Jones's time, never shirking
-and never volunteering for extra work either. About the Rebellion and its
-results he would express no opinion. When asked whether he was not happier
-now that Jones was gone, he would say only "Donkeys live a long time. None
-of you has ever seen a dead donkey," and the others had to be content with
-this cryptic answer.
-
-On Sundays there was no work. Breakfast was an hour later than usual, and
-after breakfast there was a ceremony which was observed every week without
-fail. First came the hoisting of the flag. Snowball had found in the
-harness-room an old green tablecloth of Mrs. Jones's and had painted on it
-a hoof and a horn in white. This was run up the flagstaff in the farmhouse
-garden every Sunday morning. The flag was green, Snowball explained, to
-represent the green fields of England, while the hoof and horn signified
-the future Republic of the Animals which would arise when the human race
-had been finally overthrown. After the hoisting of the flag all the
-animals trooped into the big barn for a general assembly which was known
-as the Meeting. Here the work of the coming week was planned out and
-resolutions were put forward and debated. It was always the pigs who put
-forward the resolutions. The other animals understood how to vote, but
-could never think of any resolutions of their own. Snowball and Napoleon
-were by far the most active in the debates. But it was noticed that these
-two were never in agreement: whatever suggestion either of them made, the
-other could be counted on to oppose it. Even when it was resolved--a thing
-no one could object to in itself--to set aside the small paddock behind
-the orchard as a home of rest for animals who were past work, there was a
-stormy debate over the correct retiring age for each class of animal. The
-Meeting always ended with the singing of 'Beasts of England', and the
-afternoon was given up to recreation.
-
-The pigs had set aside the harness-room as a headquarters for themselves.
-Here, in the evenings, they studied blacksmithing, carpentering, and other
-necessary arts from books which they had brought out of the farmhouse.
-Snowball also busied himself with organising the other animals into what
-he called Animal Committees. He was indefatigable at this. He formed the
-Egg Production Committee for the hens, the Clean Tails League for the
-cows, the Wild Comrades' Re-education Committee (the object of this was to
-tame the rats and rabbits), the Whiter Wool Movement for the sheep, and
-various others, besides instituting classes in reading and writing. On the
-whole, these projects were a failure. The attempt to tame the wild
-creatures, for instance, broke down almost immediately. They continued to
-behave very much as before, and when treated with generosity, simply took
-advantage of it. The cat joined the Re-education Committee and was very
-active in it for some days. She was seen one day sitting on a roof and
-talking to some sparrows who were just out of her reach. She was telling
-them that all animals were now comrades and that any sparrow who chose
-could come and perch on her paw; but the sparrows kept their distance.
-
-The reading and writing classes, however, were a great success. By the
-autumn almost every animal on the farm was literate in some degree.
-
-As for the pigs, they could already read and write perfectly. The dogs
-learned to read fairly well, but were not interested in reading anything
-except the Seven Commandments. Muriel, the goat, could read somewhat
-better than the dogs, and sometimes used to read to the others in the
-evenings from scraps of newspaper which she found on the rubbish heap.
-Benjamin could read as well as any pig, but never exercised his faculty.
-So far as he knew, he said, there was nothing worth reading. Clover learnt
-the whole alphabet, but could not put words together. Boxer could not get
-beyond the letter D. He would trace out A, B, C, D, in the dust with his
-great hoof, and then would stand staring at the letters with his ears
-back, sometimes shaking his forelock, trying with all his might to
-remember what came next and never succeeding. On several occasions,
-indeed, he did learn E, F, G, H, but by the time he knew them, it was
-always discovered that he had forgotten A, B, C, and D. Finally he decided
-to be content with the first four letters, and used to write them out once
-or twice every day to refresh his memory. Mollie refused to learn any but
-the six letters which spelt her own name. She would form these very neatly
-out of pieces of twig, and would then decorate them with a flower or two
-and walk round them admiring them.
-
-None of the other animals on the farm could get further than the letter A.
-It was also found that the stupider animals, such as the sheep, hens, and
-ducks, were unable to learn the Seven Commandments by heart. After much
-thought Snowball declared that the Seven Commandments could in effect be
-reduced to a single maxim, namely: "Four legs good, two legs bad." This,
-he said, contained the essential principle of Animalism. Whoever had
-thoroughly grasped it would be safe from human influences. The birds at
-first objected, since it seemed to them that they also had two legs, but
-Snowball proved to them that this was not so.
-
-"A bird's wing, comrades," he said, "is an organ of propulsion and not of
-manipulation. It should therefore be regarded as a leg. The distinguishing
-mark of man is the HAND, the instrument with which he does all his
-mischief."
-
-The birds did not understand Snowball's long words, but they accepted his
-explanation, and all the humbler animals set to work to learn the new
-maxim by heart. FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD, was inscribed on the end
-wall of the barn, above the Seven Commandments and in bigger letters. When
-they had once got it by heart, the sheep developed a great liking for this
-maxim, and often as they lay in the field they would all start bleating
-"Four legs good, two legs bad! Four legs good, two legs bad!" and keep it
-up for hours on end, never growing tired of it.
-
-Napoleon took no interest in Snowball's committees. He said that the
-education of the young was more important than anything that could be done
-for those who were already grown up. It happened that Jessie and Bluebell
-had both whelped soon after the hay harvest, giving birth between them to
-nine sturdy puppies. As soon as they were weaned, Napoleon took them away
-from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for
-their education. He took them up into a loft which could only be reached
-by a ladder from the harness-room, and there kept them in such seclusion
-that the rest of the farm soon forgot their existence.
-
-The mystery of where the milk went to was soon cleared up. It was mixed
-every day into the pigs' mash. The early apples were now ripening, and the
-grass of the orchard was littered with windfalls. The animals had assumed
-as a matter of course that these would be shared out equally; one day,
-however, the order went forth that all the windfalls were to be collected
-and brought to the harness-room for the use of the pigs. At this some of
-the other animals murmured, but it was no use. All the pigs were in full
-agreement on this point, even Snowball and Napoleon. Squealer was sent to
-make the necessary explanations to the others.
-
-"Comrades!" he cried. "You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing
-this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike
-milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these
-things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by
-Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the
-well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and
-organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over
-your welfare. It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those
-apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones
-would come back! Yes, Jones would come back! Surely, comrades," cried
-Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his
-tail, "surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?"
-
-Now if there was one thing that the animals were completely certain of, it
-was that they did not want Jones back. When it was put to them in this
-light, they had no more to say. The importance of keeping the pigs in good
-health was all too obvious. So it was agreed without further argument that
-the milk and the windfall apples (and also the main crop of apples when
-they ripened) should be reserved for the pigs alone.
-
-
-
-
-    Chapter IV
-
-
-
-By the late summer the news of what had happened on Animal Farm had spread
-across half the county. Every day Snowball and Napoleon sent out flights
-of pigeons whose instructions were to mingle with the animals on
-neighbouring farms, tell them the story of the Rebellion, and teach them
-the tune of 'Beasts of England'.
-
-Most of this time Mr. Jones had spent sitting in the taproom of the Red
-Lion at Willingdon, complaining to anyone who would listen of the
-monstrous injustice he had suffered in being turned out of his property by
-a pack of good-for-nothing animals. The other farmers sympathised in
-principle, but they did not at first give him much help. At heart, each of
-them was secretly wondering whether he could not somehow turn Jones's
-misfortune to his own advantage. It was lucky that the owners of the two
-farms which adjoined Animal Farm were on permanently bad terms. One of
-them, which was named Foxwood, was a large, neglected, old-fashioned farm,
-much overgrown by woodland, with all its pastures worn out and its hedges
-in a disgraceful condition. Its owner, Mr. Pilkington, was an easy-going
-gentleman farmer who spent most of his time in fishing or hunting
-according to the season. The other farm, which was called Pinchfield, was
-smaller and better kept. Its owner was a Mr. Frederick, a tough, shrewd
-man, perpetually involved in lawsuits and with a name for driving hard
-bargains. These two disliked each other so much that it was difficult for
-them to come to any agreement, even in defence of their own interests.
-
-Nevertheless, they were both thoroughly frightened by the rebellion on
-Animal Farm, and very anxious to prevent their own animals from learning
-too much about it. At first they pretended to laugh to scorn the idea of
-animals managing a farm for themselves. The whole thing would be over in a
-fortnight, they said. They put it about that the animals on the Manor Farm
-(they insisted on calling it the Manor Farm; they would not tolerate the
-name "Animal Farm") were perpetually fighting among themselves and were
-also rapidly starving to death. When time passed and the animals had
-evidently not starved to death, Frederick and Pilkington changed their
-tune and began to talk of the terrible wickedness that now flourished on
-Animal Farm. It was given out that the animals there practised cannibalism,
-tortured one another with red-hot horseshoes, and had their females in
-common. This was what came of rebelling against the laws of Nature,
-Frederick and Pilkington said.
-
-However, these stories were never fully believed. Rumours of a wonderful
-farm, where the human beings had been turned out and the animals managed
-their own affairs, continued to circulate in vague and distorted forms,
-and throughout that year a wave of rebelliousness ran through the
-countryside. Bulls which had always been tractable suddenly turned savage,
-sheep broke down hedges and devoured the clover, cows kicked the pail
-over, hunters refused their fences and shot their riders on to the other
-side. Above all, the tune and even the words of 'Beasts of England' were
-known everywhere. It had spread with astonishing speed. The human beings
-could not contain their rage when they heard this song, though they
-pretended to think it merely ridiculous. They could not understand, they
-said, how even animals could bring themselves to sing such contemptible
-rubbish. Any animal caught singing it was given a flogging on the spot.
-And yet the song was irrepressible. The blackbirds whistled it in the
-hedges, the pigeons cooed it in the elms, it got into the din of the
-smithies and the tune of the church bells. And when the human beings
-listened to it, they secretly trembled, hearing in it a prophecy of their
-future doom.
-
-Early in October, when the corn was cut and stacked and some of it was
-already threshed, a flight of pigeons came whirling through the air and
-alighted in the yard of Animal Farm in the wildest excitement. Jones and
-all his men, with half a dozen others from Foxwood and Pinchfield, had
-entered the five-barred gate and were coming up the cart-track that led to
-the farm. They were all carrying sticks, except Jones, who was marching
-ahead with a gun in his hands. Obviously they were going to attempt the
-recapture of the farm.
-
-This had long been expected, and all preparations had been made. Snowball,
-who had studied an old book of Julius Caesar's campaigns which he had
-found in the farmhouse, was in charge of the defensive operations. He gave
-his orders quickly, and in a couple of minutes every animal was at his
-post.
-
-As the human beings approached the farm buildings, Snowball launched his
-first attack. All the pigeons, to the number of thirty-five, flew to and
-fro over the men's heads and muted upon them from mid-air; and while the
-men were dealing with this, the geese, who had been hiding behind the
-hedge, rushed out and pecked viciously at the calves of their legs.
-However, this was only a light skirmishing manoeuvre, intended to create a
-little disorder, and the men easily drove the geese off with their sticks.
-Snowball now launched his second line of attack. Muriel, Benjamin, and all
-the sheep, with Snowball at the head of them, rushed forward and prodded
-and butted the men from every side, while Benjamin turned around and
-lashed at them with his small hoofs. But once again the men, with their
-sticks and their hobnailed boots, were too strong for them; and suddenly,
-at a squeal from Snowball, which was the signal for retreat, all the
-animals turned and fled through the gateway into the yard.
-
-The men gave a shout of triumph. They saw, as they imagined, their enemies
-in flight, and they rushed after them in disorder. This was just what
-Snowball had intended. As soon as they were well inside the yard, the
-three horses, the three cows, and the rest of the pigs, who had been lying
-in ambush in the cowshed, suddenly emerged in their rear, cutting them
-off. Snowball now gave the signal for the charge. He himself dashed
-straight for Jones. Jones saw him coming, raised his gun and fired. The
-pellets scored bloody streaks along Snowball's back, and a sheep dropped
-dead. Without halting for an instant, Snowball flung his fifteen stone
-against Jones's legs. Jones was hurled into a pile of dung and his gun
-flew out of his hands. But the most terrifying spectacle of all was Boxer,
-rearing up on his hind legs and striking out with his great iron-shod
-hoofs like a stallion. His very first blow took a stable-lad from Foxwood
-on the skull and stretched him lifeless in the mud. At the sight, several
-men dropped their sticks and tried to run. Panic overtook them, and the
-next moment all the animals together were chasing them round and round the
-yard. They were gored, kicked, bitten, trampled on. There was not an
-animal on the farm that did not take vengeance on them after his own
-fashion. Even the cat suddenly leapt off a roof onto a cowman's shoulders
-and sank her claws in his neck, at which he yelled horribly. At a moment
-when the opening was clear, the men were glad enough to rush out of the
-yard and make a bolt for the main road. And so within five minutes of
-their invasion they were in ignominious retreat by the same way as they
-had come, with a flock of geese hissing after them and pecking at their
-calves all the way.
-
-All the men were gone except one. Back in the yard Boxer was pawing with
-his hoof at the stable-lad who lay face down in the mud, trying to turn
-him over. The boy did not stir.
-
-"He is dead," said Boxer sorrowfully. "I had no intention of doing that.
-I forgot that I was wearing iron shoes. Who will believe that I did not do
-this on purpose?"
-
-"No sentimentality, comrade!" cried Snowball from whose wounds the blood
-was still dripping. "War is war. The only good human being is a dead one."
-
-"I have no wish to take life, not even human life," repeated Boxer, and
-his eyes were full of tears.
-
-"Where is Mollie?" exclaimed somebody.
-
-Mollie in fact was missing. For a moment there was great alarm; it was
-feared that the men might have harmed her in some way, or even carried her
-off with them. In the end, however, she was found hiding in her stall with
-her head buried among the hay in the manger. She had taken to flight as
-soon as the gun went off. And when the others came back from looking for
-her, it was to find that the stable-lad, who in fact was only stunned, had
-already recovered and made off.
-
-The animals had now reassembled in the wildest excitement, each recounting
-his own exploits in the battle at the top of his voice. An impromptu
-celebration of the victory was held immediately. The flag was run up and
-'Beasts of England' was sung a number of times, then the sheep who had been
-killed was given a solemn funeral, a hawthorn bush being planted on her
-grave. At the graveside Snowball made a little speech, emphasising the
-need for all animals to be ready to die for Animal Farm if need be.
-
-The animals decided unanimously to create a military decoration, "Animal
-Hero, First Class," which was conferred there and then on Snowball and
-Boxer. It consisted of a brass medal (they were really some old
-horse-brasses which had been found in the harness-room), to be worn on
-Sundays and holidays. There was also "Animal Hero, Second Class," which
-was conferred posthumously on the dead sheep.
-
-There was much discussion as to what the battle should be called. In the
-end, it was named the Battle of the Cowshed, since that was where the
-ambush had been sprung. Mr. Jones's gun had been found lying in the mud,
-and it was known that there was a supply of cartridges in the farmhouse.
-It was decided to set the gun up at the foot of the Flagstaff, like a
-piece of artillery, and to fire it twice a year--once on October the
-twelfth, the anniversary of the Battle of the Cowshed, and once on
-Midsummer Day, the anniversary of the Rebellion.
-
-
-
-
-    Chapter V
-
-
-
-As winter drew on, Mollie became more and more troublesome. She was late
-for work every morning and excused herself by saying that she had
-overslept, and she complained of mysterious pains, although her appetite
-was excellent. On every kind of pretext she would run away from work and
-go to the drinking pool, where she would stand foolishly gazing at her own
-reflection in the water. But there were also rumours of something more
-serious. One day, as Mollie strolled blithely into the yard, flirting her
-long tail and chewing at a stalk of hay, Clover took her aside.
-
-"Mollie," she said, "I have something very serious to say to you. This
-morning I saw you looking over the hedge that divides Animal Farm from
-Foxwood. One of Mr. Pilkington's men was standing on the other side of the
-hedge. And--I was a long way away, but I am almost certain I saw this--he
-was talking to you and you were allowing him to stroke your nose. What
-does that mean, Mollie?"
-
-"He didn't! I wasn't! It isn't true!" cried Mollie, beginning to prance
-about and paw the ground.
-
-"Mollie! Look me in the face. Do you give me your word of honour that that
-man was not stroking your nose?"
-
-"It isn't true!" repeated Mollie, but she could not look Clover in the
-face, and the next moment she took to her heels and galloped away into the
-field.
-
-A thought struck Clover. Without saying anything to the others, she went
-to Mollie's stall and turned over the straw with her hoof. Hidden under
-the straw was a little pile of lump sugar and several bunches of ribbon of
-different colours.
-
-Three days later Mollie disappeared. For some weeks nothing was known of
-her whereabouts, then the pigeons reported that they had seen her on the
-other side of Willingdon. She was between the shafts of a smart dogcart
-painted red and black, which was standing outside a public-house. A fat
-red-faced man in check breeches and gaiters, who looked like a publican,
-was stroking her nose and feeding her with sugar. Her coat was newly
-clipped and she wore a scarlet ribbon round her forelock. She appeared to
-be enjoying herself, so the pigeons said. None of the animals ever
-mentioned Mollie again.
-
-In January there came bitterly hard weather. The earth was like iron, and
-nothing could be done in the fields. Many meetings were held in the big
-barn, and the pigs occupied themselves with planning out the work of the
-coming season. It had come to be accepted that the pigs, who were
-manifestly cleverer than the other animals, should decide all questions of
-farm policy, though their decisions had to be ratified by a majority vote.
-This arrangement would have worked well enough if it had not been for the
-disputes between Snowball and Napoleon. These two disagreed at every point
-where disagreement was possible. If one of them suggested sowing a bigger
-acreage with barley, the other was certain to demand a bigger acreage of
-oats, and if one of them said that such and such a field was just right
-for cabbages, the other would declare that it was useless for anything
-except roots. Each had his own following, and there were some violent
-debates. At the Meetings Snowball often won over the majority by his
-brilliant speeches, but Napoleon was better at canvassing support for
-himself in between times. He was especially successful with the sheep. Of
-late the sheep had taken to bleating "Four legs good, two legs bad" both
-in and out of season, and they often interrupted the Meeting with this. It
-was noticed that they were especially liable to break into "Four legs
-good, two legs bad" at crucial moments in Snowball's speeches. Snowball
-had made a close study of some back numbers of the 'Farmer and
-Stockbreeder' which he had found in the farmhouse, and was full of plans
-for innovations and improvements. He talked learnedly about field drains,
-silage, and basic slag, and had worked out a complicated scheme for all
-the animals to drop their dung directly in the fields, at a different spot
-every day, to save the labour of cartage. Napoleon produced no schemes of
-his own, but said quietly that Snowball's would come to nothing, and
-seemed to be biding his time. But of all their controversies, none was so
-bitter as the one that took place over the windmill.
-
-In the long pasture, not far from the farm buildings, there was a small
-knoll which was the highest point on the farm. After surveying the ground,
-Snowball declared that this was just the place for a windmill, which could
-be made to operate a dynamo and supply the farm with electrical power.
-This would light the stalls and warm them in winter, and would also run a
-circular saw, a chaff-cutter, a mangel-slicer, and an electric milking
-machine. The animals had never heard of anything of this kind before
-(for the farm was an old-fashioned one and had only the most primitive
-machinery), and they listened in astonishment while Snowball conjured up
-pictures of fantastic machines which would do their work for them while
-they grazed at their ease in the fields or improved their minds with
-reading and conversation.
-
-Within a few weeks Snowball's plans for the windmill were fully worked
-out. The mechanical details came mostly from three books which had
-belonged to Mr. Jones--'One Thousand Useful Things to Do About the House',
-'Every Man His Own Bricklayer', and 'Electricity for Beginners'. Snowball
-used as his study a shed which had once been used for incubators and had a
-smooth wooden floor, suitable for drawing on. He was closeted there for
-hours at a time. With his books held open by a stone, and with a piece of
-chalk gripped between the knuckles of his trotter, he would move rapidly
-to and fro, drawing in line after line and uttering little whimpers of
-excitement. Gradually the plans grew into a complicated mass of cranks and
-cog-wheels, covering more than half the floor, which the other animals
-found completely unintelligible but very impressive. All of them came to
-look at Snowball's drawings at least once a day. Even the hens and ducks
-came, and were at pains not to tread on the chalk marks. Only Napoleon
-held aloof. He had declared himself against the windmill from the start.
-One day, however, he arrived unexpectedly to examine the plans. He walked
-heavily round the shed, looked closely at every detail of the plans and
-snuffed at them once or twice, then stood for a little while contemplating
-them out of the corner of his eye; then suddenly he lifted his leg,
-urinated over the plans, and walked out without uttering a word.
-
-The whole farm was deeply divided on the subject of the windmill. Snowball
-did not deny that to build it would be a difficult business. Stone would
-have to be carried and built up into walls, then the sails would have to
-be made and after that there would be need for dynamos and cables. (How
-these were to be procured, Snowball did not say.) But he maintained that
-it could all be done in a year. And thereafter, he declared, so much
-labour would be saved that the animals would only need to work three days
-a week. Napoleon, on the other hand, argued that the great need of the
-moment was to increase food production, and that if they wasted time on
-the windmill they would all starve to death. The animals formed themselves
-into two factions under the slogan, "Vote for Snowball and the three-day
-week" and "Vote for Napoleon and the full manger." Benjamin was the only
-animal who did not side with either faction. He refused to believe either
-that food would become more plentiful or that the windmill would save
-work. Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always
-gone on--that is, badly.
-
-Apart from the disputes over the windmill, there was the question of the
-defence of the farm. It was fully realised that though the human beings
-had been defeated in the Battle of the Cowshed they might make another and
-more determined attempt to recapture the farm and reinstate Mr. Jones.
-They had all the more reason for doing so because the news of their defeat
-had spread across the countryside and made the animals on the neighbouring
-farms more restive than ever. As usual, Snowball and Napoleon were in
-disagreement. According to Napoleon, what the animals must do was to
-procure firearms and train themselves in the use of them. According to
-Snowball, they must send out more and more pigeons and stir up rebellion
-among the animals on the other farms. The one argued that if they could
-not defend themselves they were bound to be conquered, the other argued
-that if rebellions happened everywhere they would have no need to defend
-themselves. The animals listened first to Napoleon, then to Snowball, and
-could not make up their minds which was right; indeed, they always found
-themselves in agreement with the one who was speaking at the moment.
-
-At last the day came when Snowball's plans were completed. At the Meeting
-on the following Sunday the question of whether or not to begin work on
-the windmill was to be put to the vote. When the animals had assembled in
-the big barn, Snowball stood up and, though occasionally interrupted by
-bleating from the sheep, set forth his reasons for advocating the building
-of the windmill. Then Napoleon stood up to reply. He said very quietly
-that the windmill was nonsense and that he advised nobody to vote for it,
-and promptly sat down again; he had spoken for barely thirty seconds, and
-seemed almost indifferent as to the effect he produced. At this Snowball
-sprang to his feet, and shouting down the sheep, who had begun bleating
-again, broke into a passionate appeal in favour of the windmill. Until now
-the animals had been about equally divided in their sympathies, but in a
-moment Snowball's eloquence had carried them away. In glowing sentences he
-painted a picture of Animal Farm as it might be when sordid labour was
-lifted from the animals' backs. His imagination had now run far beyond
-chaff-cutters and turnip-slicers. Electricity, he said, could operate
-threshing machines, ploughs, harrows, rollers, and reapers and binders,
-besides supplying every stall with its own electric light, hot and cold
-water, and an electric heater. By the time he had finished speaking, there
-was no doubt as to which way the vote would go. But just at this moment
-Napoleon stood up and, casting a peculiar sidelong look at Snowball,
-uttered a high-pitched whimper of a kind no one had ever heard him utter
-before.
-
-At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs
-wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed
-straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to
-escape their snapping jaws. In a moment he was out of the door and they
-were after him. Too amazed and frightened to speak, all the animals
-crowded through the door to watch the chase. Snowball was racing across
-the long pasture that led to the road. He was running as only a pig can
-run, but the dogs were close on his heels. Suddenly he slipped and it
-seemed certain that they had him. Then he was up again, running faster
-than ever, then the dogs were gaining on him again. One of them all but
-closed his jaws on Snowball's tail, but Snowball whisked it free just in
-time. Then he put on an extra spurt and, with a few inches to spare,
-slipped through a hole in the hedge and was seen no more.
-
-Silent and terrified, the animals crept back into the barn. In a moment
-the dogs came bounding back. At first no one had been able to imagine
-where these creatures came from, but the problem was soon solved: they
-were the puppies whom Napoleon had taken away from their mothers and
-reared privately. Though not yet full-grown, they were huge dogs, and as
-fierce-looking as wolves. They kept close to Napoleon. It was noticed that
-they wagged their tails to him in the same way as the other dogs had been
-used to do to Mr. Jones.
-
-Napoleon, with the dogs following him, now mounted on to the raised
-portion of the floor where Major had previously stood to deliver his
-speech. He announced that from now on the Sunday-morning Meetings would
-come to an end. They were unnecessary, he said, and wasted time. In future
-all questions relating to the working of the farm would be settled by a
-special committee of pigs, presided over by himself. These would meet in
-private and afterwards communicate their decisions to the others. The
-animals would still assemble on Sunday mornings to salute the flag, sing
-'Beasts of England', and receive their orders for the week; but there would
-be no more debates.
-
-In spite of the shock that Snowball's expulsion had given them, the
-animals were dismayed by this announcement. Several of them would have
-protested if they could have found the right arguments. Even Boxer was
-vaguely troubled. He set his ears back, shook his forelock several times,
-and tried hard to marshal his thoughts; but in the end he could not think
-of anything to say. Some of the pigs themselves, however, were more
-articulate. Four young porkers in the front row uttered shrill squeals of
-disapproval, and all four of them sprang to their feet and began speaking
-at once. But suddenly the dogs sitting round Napoleon let out deep,
-menacing growls, and the pigs fell silent and sat down again. Then the
-sheep broke out into a tremendous bleating of "Four legs good, two legs
-bad!" which went on for nearly a quarter of an hour and put an end to any
-chance of discussion.
-
-Afterwards Squealer was sent round the farm to explain the new arrangement
-to the others.
-
-"Comrades," he said, "I trust that every animal here appreciates the
-sacrifice that Comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labour upon
-himself. Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! On the
-contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more
-firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only
-too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you
-might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?
-Suppose you had decided to follow Snowball, with his moonshine of
-windmills--Snowball, who, as we now know, was no better than a criminal?"
-
-"He fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed," said somebody.
-
-"Bravery is not enough," said Squealer. "Loyalty and obedience are more
-important. And as to the Battle of the Cowshed, I believe the time will
-come when we shall find that Snowball's part in it was much exaggerated.
-Discipline, comrades, iron discipline! That is the watchword for today.
-One false step, and our enemies would be upon us. Surely, comrades, you do
-not want Jones back?"
-
-Once again this argument was unanswerable. Certainly the animals did not
-want Jones back; if the holding of debates on Sunday mornings was liable
-to bring him back, then the debates must stop. Boxer, who had now had time
-to think things over, voiced the general feeling by saying: "If Comrade
-Napoleon says it, it must be right." And from then on he adopted the
-maxim, "Napoleon is always right," in addition to his private motto of "I
-will work harder."
-
-By this time the weather had broken and the spring ploughing had begun.
-The shed where Snowball had drawn his plans of the windmill had been shut
-up and it was assumed that the plans had been rubbed off the floor. Every
-Sunday morning at ten o'clock the animals assembled in the big barn to
-receive their orders for the week. The skull of old Major, now clean of
-flesh, had been disinterred from the orchard and set up on a stump at the
-foot of the flagstaff, beside the gun. After the hoisting of the flag, the
-animals were required to file past the skull in a reverent manner before
-entering the barn. Nowadays they did not sit all together as they had done
-in the past. Napoleon, with Squealer and another pig named Minimus, who
-had a remarkable gift for composing songs and poems, sat on the front of
-the raised platform, with the nine young dogs forming a semicircle round
-them, and the other pigs sitting behind. The rest of the animals sat
-facing them in the main body of the barn. Napoleon read out the orders for
-the week in a gruff soldierly style, and after a single singing of 'Beasts
-of England', all the animals dispersed.
-
-On the third Sunday after Snowball's expulsion, the animals were somewhat
-surprised to hear Napoleon announce that the windmill was to be built
-after all. He did not give any reason for having changed his mind, but
-merely warned the animals that this extra task would mean very hard work,
-it might even be necessary to reduce their rations. The plans, however,
-had all been prepared, down to the last detail. A special committee of
-pigs had been at work upon them for the past three weeks. The building of
-the windmill, with various other improvements, was expected to take two
-years.
-
-That evening Squealer explained privately to the other animals that
-Napoleon had never in reality been opposed to the windmill. On the
-contrary, it was he who had advocated it in the beginning, and the plan
-which Snowball had drawn on the floor of the incubator shed had actually
-been stolen from among Napoleon's papers. The windmill was, in fact,
-Napoleon's own creation. Why, then, asked somebody, had he spoken so
-strongly against it? Here Squealer looked very sly. That, he said, was
-Comrade Napoleon's cunning. He had SEEMED to oppose the windmill, simply
-as a manoeuvre to get rid of Snowball, who was a dangerous character and a
-bad influence. Now that Snowball was out of the way, the plan could go
-forward without his interference. This, said Squealer, was something
-called tactics. He repeated a number of times, "Tactics, comrades,
-tactics!" skipping round and whisking his tail with a merry laugh. The
-animals were not certain what the word meant, but Squealer spoke so
-persuasively, and the three dogs who happened to be with him growled so
-threateningly, that they accepted his explanation without further
-questions.
-
-
-
-
-    Chapter VI
-
-
-
-All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their
-work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that
-they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who
-would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings.
-
-Throughout the spring and summer they worked a sixty-hour week, and in
-August Napoleon announced that there would be work on Sunday afternoons
-as well. This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented
-himself from it would have his rations reduced by half. Even so, it was
-found necessary to leave certain tasks undone. The harvest was a little
-less successful than in the previous year, and two fields which should
-have been sown with roots in the early summer were not sown because the
-ploughing had not been completed early enough. It was possible to foresee
-that the coming winter would be a hard one.
-
-The windmill presented unexpected difficulties. There was a good quarry of
-limestone on the farm, and plenty of sand and cement had been found in one
-of the outhouses, so that all the materials for building were at hand. But
-the problem the animals could not at first solve was how to break up the
-stone into pieces of suitable size. There seemed no way of doing this
-except with picks and crowbars, which no animal could use, because no
-animal could stand on his hind legs. Only after weeks of vain effort did
-the right idea occur to somebody-namely, to utilise the force of gravity.
-Huge boulders, far too big to be used as they were, were lying all over
-the bed of the quarry. The animals lashed ropes round these, and then all
-together, cows, horses, sheep, any animal that could lay hold of the
-rope--even the pigs sometimes joined in at critical moments--they dragged
-them with desperate slowness up the slope to the top of the quarry, where
-they were toppled over the edge, to shatter to pieces below. Transporting
-the stone when it was once broken was comparatively simple. The horses
-carried it off in cart-loads, the sheep dragged single blocks, even Muriel
-and Benjamin yoked themselves into an old governess-cart and did their
-share. By late summer a sufficient store of stone had accumulated, and
-then the building began, under the superintendence of the pigs.
-
-But it was a slow, laborious process. Frequently it took a whole day of
-exhausting effort to drag a single boulder to the top of the quarry, and
-sometimes when it was pushed over the edge it failed to break. Nothing
-could have been achieved without Boxer, whose strength seemed equal to
-that of all the rest of the animals put together. When the boulder began
-to slip and the animals cried out in despair at finding themselves dragged
-down the hill, it was always Boxer who strained himself against the rope
-and brought the boulder to a stop. To see him toiling up the slope inch by
-inch, his breath coming fast, the tips of his hoofs clawing at the ground,
-and his great sides matted with sweat, filled everyone with admiration.
-Clover warned him sometimes to be careful not to overstrain himself, but
-Boxer would never listen to her. His two slogans, "I will work harder"
-and "Napoleon is always right," seemed to him a sufficient answer to all
-problems. He had made arrangements with the cockerel to call him
-three-quarters of an hour earlier in the mornings instead of half an hour.
-And in his spare moments, of which there were not many nowadays, he would
-go alone to the quarry, collect a load of broken stone, and drag it down
-to the site of the windmill unassisted.
-
-The animals were not badly off throughout that summer, in spite of the
-hardness of their work. If they had no more food than they had had in
-Jones's day, at least they did not have less. The advantage of only having
-to feed themselves, and not having to support five extravagant human
-beings as well, was so great that it would have taken a lot of failures to
-outweigh it. And in many ways the animal method of doing things was more
-efficient and saved labour. Such jobs as weeding, for instance, could be
-done with a thoroughness impossible to human beings. And again, since no
-animal now stole, it was unnecessary to fence off pasture from arable
-land, which saved a lot of labour on the upkeep of hedges and gates.
-Nevertheless, as the summer wore on, various unforeseen shortages began to
-make them selves felt. There was need of paraffin oil, nails, string, dog
-biscuits, and iron for the horses' shoes, none of which could be produced
-on the farm. Later there would also be need for seeds and artificial
-manures, besides various tools and, finally, the machinery for the
-windmill. How these were to be procured, no one was able to imagine.
-
-One Sunday morning, when the animals assembled to receive their orders,
-Napoleon announced that he had decided upon a new policy. From now onwards
-Animal Farm would engage in trade with the neighbouring farms: not, of
-course, for any commercial purpose, but simply in order to obtain certain
-materials which were urgently necessary. The needs of the windmill must
-override everything else, he said. He was therefore making arrangements to
-sell a stack of hay and part of the current year's wheat crop, and later
-on, if more money were needed, it would have to be made up by the sale of
-eggs, for which there was always a market in Willingdon. The hens, said
-Napoleon, should welcome this sacrifice as their own special contribution
-towards the building of the windmill.
-
-Once again the animals were conscious of a vague uneasiness. Never to have
-any dealings with human beings, never to engage in trade, never to make
-use of money--had not these been among the earliest resolutions passed at
-that first triumphant Meeting after Jones was expelled? All the animals
-remembered passing such resolutions: or at least they thought that they
-remembered it. The four young pigs who had protested when Napoleon
-abolished the Meetings raised their voices timidly, but they were promptly
-silenced by a tremendous growling from the dogs. Then, as usual, the sheep
-broke into "Four legs good, two legs bad!" and the momentary awkwardness
-was smoothed over. Finally Napoleon raised his trotter for silence and
-announced that he had already made all the arrangements. There would be no
-need for any of the animals to come in contact with human beings, which
-would clearly be most undesirable. He intended to take the whole burden
-upon his own shoulders. A Mr. Whymper, a solicitor living in Willingdon,
-had agreed to act as intermediary between Animal Farm and the outside
-world, and would visit the farm every Monday morning to receive his
-instructions. Napoleon ended his speech with his usual cry of "Long live
-Animal Farm!" and after the singing of 'Beasts of England' the animals
-were dismissed.
-
-Afterwards Squealer made a round of the farm and set the animals' minds at
-rest. He assured them that the resolution against engaging in trade and
-using money had never been passed, or even suggested. It was pure
-imagination, probably traceable in the beginning to lies circulated by
-Snowball. A few animals still felt faintly doubtful, but Squealer asked
-them shrewdly, "Are you certain that this is not something that you have
-dreamed, comrades? Have you any record of such a resolution? Is it written
-down anywhere?" And since it was certainly true that nothing of the kind
-existed in writing, the animals were satisfied that they had been mistaken.
-
-Every Monday Mr. Whymper visited the farm as had been arranged. He was a
-sly-looking little man with side whiskers, a solicitor in a very small way
-of business, but sharp enough to have realised earlier than anyone else
-that Animal Farm would need a broker and that the commissions would be
-worth having. The animals watched his coming and going with a kind of
-dread, and avoided him as much as possible. Nevertheless, the sight of
-Napoleon, on all fours, delivering orders to Whymper, who stood on two
-legs, roused their pride and partly reconciled them to the new
-arrangement. Their relations with the human race were now not quite the
-same as they had been before. The human beings did not hate Animal Farm
-any less now that it was prospering; indeed, they hated it more than ever.
-Every human being held it as an article of faith that the farm would go
-bankrupt sooner or later, and, above all, that the windmill would be a
-failure. They would meet in the public-houses and prove to one another by
-means of diagrams that the windmill was bound to fall down, or that if it
-did stand up, then that it would never work. And yet, against their will,
-they had developed a certain respect for the efficiency with which the
-animals were managing their own affairs. One symptom of this was that they
-had begun to call Animal Farm by its proper name and ceased to pretend
-that it was called the Manor Farm. They had also dropped their championship
-of Jones, who had given up hope of getting his farm back and gone to live
-in another part of the county. Except through Whymper, there was as yet no
-contact between Animal Farm and the outside world, but there were constant
-rumours that Napoleon was about to enter into a definite business agreement
-either with Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood or with Mr. Frederick of
-Pinchfield--but never, it was noticed, with both simultaneously.
-
-It was about this time that the pigs suddenly moved into the farmhouse and
-took up their residence there. Again the animals seemed to remember that a
-resolution against this had been passed in the early days, and again
-Squealer was able to convince them that this was not the case. It was
-absolutely necessary, he said, that the pigs, who were the brains of the
-farm, should have a quiet place to work in. It was also more suited to the
-dignity of the Leader (for of late he had taken to speaking of Napoleon
-under the title of "Leader") to live in a house than in a mere sty.
-Nevertheless, some of the animals were disturbed when they heard that the
-pigs not only took their meals in the kitchen and used the drawing-room
-as a recreation room, but also slept in the beds. Boxer passed it off as
-usual with "Napoleon is always right!", but Clover, who thought she
-remembered a definite ruling against beds, went to the end of the barn and
-tried to puzzle out the Seven Commandments which were inscribed there.
-Finding herself unable to read more than individual letters, she fetched
-Muriel.
-
-"Muriel," she said, "read me the Fourth Commandment. Does it not say
-something about never sleeping in a bed?"
-
-With some difficulty Muriel spelt it out.
-
-"It says, 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets,"' she announced
-finally.
-
-Curiously enough, Clover had not remembered that the Fourth Commandment
-mentioned sheets; but as it was there on the wall, it must have done so.
-And Squealer, who happened to be passing at this moment, attended by two
-or three dogs, was able to put the whole matter in its proper perspective.
-
-"You have heard then, comrades," he said, "that we pigs now sleep in the
-beds of the farmhouse? And why not? You did not suppose, surely, that
-there was ever a ruling against beds? A bed merely means a place to sleep
-in. A pile of straw in a stall is a bed, properly regarded. The rule was
-against sheets, which are a human invention. We have removed the sheets
-from the farmhouse beds, and sleep between blankets. And very comfortable
-beds they are too! But not more comfortable than we need, I can tell you,
-comrades, with all the brainwork we have to do nowadays. You would not rob
-us of our repose, would you, comrades? You would not have us too tired to
-carry out our duties? Surely none of you wishes to see Jones back?"
-
-The animals reassured him on this point immediately, and no more was said
-about the pigs sleeping in the farmhouse beds. And when, some days
-afterwards, it was announced that from now on the pigs would get up an
-hour later in the mornings than the other animals, no complaint was made
-about that either.
-
-By the autumn the animals were tired but happy. They had had a hard year,
-and after the sale of part of the hay and corn, the stores of food for the
-winter were none too plentiful, but the windmill compensated for
-everything. It was almost half built now. After the harvest there was a
-stretch of clear dry weather, and the animals toiled harder than ever,
-thinking it well worth while to plod to and fro all day with blocks of
-stone if by doing so they could raise the walls another foot. Boxer would
-even come out at nights and work for an hour or two on his own by the
-light of the harvest moon. In their spare moments the animals would walk
-round and round the half-finished mill, admiring the strength and
-perpendicularity of its walls and marvelling that they should ever have
-been able to build anything so imposing. Only old Benjamin refused to grow
-enthusiastic about the windmill, though, as usual, he would utter nothing
-beyond the cryptic remark that donkeys live a long time.
-
-November came, with raging south-west winds. Building had to stop because
-it was now too wet to mix the cement. Finally there came a night when the
-gale was so violent that the farm buildings rocked on their foundations
-and several tiles were blown off the roof of the barn. The hens woke up
-squawking with terror because they had all dreamed simultaneously of
-hearing a gun go off in the distance. In the morning the animals came out
-of their stalls to find that the flagstaff had been blown down and an elm
-tree at the foot of the orchard had been plucked up like a radish. They
-had just noticed this when a cry of despair broke from every animal's
-throat. A terrible sight had met their eyes. The windmill was in ruins.
-
-With one accord they dashed down to the spot. Napoleon, who seldom moved
-out of a walk, raced ahead of them all. Yes, there it lay, the fruit of
-all their struggles, levelled to its foundations, the stones they had
-broken and carried so laboriously scattered all around. Unable at first to
-speak, they stood gazing mournfully at the litter of fallen stone. Napoleon
-paced to and fro in silence, occasionally snuffing at the ground. His tail
-had grown rigid and twitched sharply from side to side, a sign in him of
-intense mental activity. Suddenly he halted as though his mind were
-made up.
-
-"Comrades," he said quietly, "do you know who is responsible for this? Do
-you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill?
-SNOWBALL!" he suddenly roared in a voice of thunder. "Snowball has done
-this thing! In sheer malignity, thinking to set back our plans and avenge
-himself for his ignominious expulsion, this traitor has crept here under
-cover of night and destroyed our work of nearly a year. Comrades, here
-and now I pronounce the death sentence upon Snowball. 'Animal Hero, Second
-Class,' and half a bushel of apples to any animal who brings him to
-justice. A full bushel to anyone who captures him alive!"
-
-The animals were shocked beyond measure to learn that even Snowball could
-be guilty of such an action. There was a cry of indignation, and everyone
-began thinking out ways of catching Snowball if he should ever come back.
-Almost immediately the footprints of a pig were discovered in the grass at
-a little distance from the knoll. They could only be traced for a few
-yards, but appeared to lead to a hole in the hedge. Napoleon snuffed
-deeply at them and pronounced them to be Snowball's. He gave it as his
-opinion that Snowball had probably come from the direction of Foxwood Farm.
-
-"No more delays, comrades!" cried Napoleon when the footprints had been
-examined. "There is work to be done. This very morning we begin rebuilding
-the windmill, and we will build all through the winter, rain or shine. We
-will teach this miserable traitor that he cannot undo our work so easily.
-Remember, comrades, there must be no alteration in our plans: they shall
-be carried out to the day. Forward, comrades! Long live the windmill! Long
-live Animal Farm!"
-
-
-
-
-    Chapter VII
-
-
-
-It was a bitter winter. The stormy weather was followed by sleet and snow,
-and then by a hard frost which did not break till well into February. The
-animals carried on as best they could with the rebuilding of the windmill,
-well knowing that the outside world was watching them and that the envious
-human beings would rejoice and triumph if the mill were not finished
-on time.
-
-Out of spite, the human beings pretended not to believe that it was
-Snowball who had destroyed the windmill: they said that it had fallen down
-because the walls were too thin. The animals knew that this was not the
-case. Still, it had been decided to build the walls three feet thick this
-time instead of eighteen inches as before, which meant collecting much
-larger quantities of stone. For a long time the quarry was full of
-snowdrifts and nothing could be done. Some progress was made in the dry
-frosty weather that followed, but it was cruel work, and the animals could
-not feel so hopeful about it as they had felt before. They were always
-cold, and usually hungry as well. Only Boxer and Clover never lost heart.
-Squealer made excellent speeches on the joy of service and the dignity of
-labour, but the other animals found more inspiration in Boxer's strength
-and his never-failing cry of "I will work harder!"
-
-In January food fell short. The corn ration was drastically reduced, and
-it was announced that an extra potato ration would be issued to make up
-for it. Then it was discovered that the greater part of the potato crop
-had been frosted in the clamps, which had not been covered thickly enough.
-The potatoes had become soft and discoloured, and only a few were edible.
-For days at a time the animals had nothing to eat but chaff and mangels.
-Starvation seemed to stare them in the face.
-
-It was vitally necessary to conceal this fact from the outside world.
-Emboldened by the collapse of the windmill, the human beings were
-inventing fresh lies about Animal Farm. Once again it was being put about
-that all the animals were dying of famine and disease, and that they were
-continually fighting among themselves and had resorted to cannibalism and
-infanticide. Napoleon was well aware of the bad results that might follow
-if the real facts of the food situation were known, and he decided to make
-use of Mr. Whymper to spread a contrary impression. Hitherto the animals
-had had little or no contact with Whymper on his weekly visits: now,
-however, a few selected animals, mostly sheep, were instructed to remark
-casually in his hearing that rations had been increased. In addition,
-Napoleon ordered the almost empty bins in the store-shed to be filled
-nearly to the brim with sand, which was then covered up with what remained
-of the grain and meal. On some suitable pretext Whymper was led through
-the store-shed and allowed to catch a glimpse of the bins. He was
-deceived, and continued to report to the outside world that there was no
-food shortage on Animal Farm.
-
-Nevertheless, towards the end of January it became obvious that it would
-be necessary to procure some more grain from somewhere. In these days
-Napoleon rarely appeared in public, but spent all his time in the
-farmhouse, which was guarded at each door by fierce-looking dogs. When he
-did emerge, it was in a ceremonial manner, with an escort of six dogs who
-closely surrounded him and growled if anyone came too near. Frequently he
-did not even appear on Sunday mornings, but issued his orders through one
-of the other pigs, usually Squealer.
-
-One Sunday morning Squealer announced that the hens, who had just come in
-to lay again, must surrender their eggs. Napoleon had accepted, through
-Whymper, a contract for four hundred eggs a week. The price of these would
-pay for enough grain and meal to keep the farm going till summer came on
-and conditions were easier.
-
-When the hens heard this, they raised a terrible outcry. They had been
-warned earlier that this sacrifice might be necessary, but had not
-believed that it would really happen. They were just getting their
-clutches ready for the spring sitting, and they protested that to take the
-eggs away now was murder. For the first time since the expulsion of Jones,
-there was something resembling a rebellion. Led by three young Black
-Minorca pullets, the hens made a determined effort to thwart Napoleon's
-wishes. Their method was to fly up to the rafters and there lay their
-eggs, which smashed to pieces on the floor. Napoleon acted swiftly and
-ruthlessly. He ordered the hens' rations to be stopped, and decreed that
-any animal giving so much as a grain of corn to a hen should be punished
-by death. The dogs saw to it that these orders were carried out. For five
-days the hens held out, then they capitulated and went back to their
-nesting boxes. Nine hens had died in the meantime. Their bodies were
-buried in the orchard, and it was given out that they had died of
-coccidiosis. Whymper heard nothing of this affair, and the eggs were duly
-delivered, a grocer's van driving up to the farm once a week to take them
-away.
-
-All this while no more had been seen of Snowball. He was rumoured to be
-hiding on one of the neighbouring farms, either Foxwood or Pinchfield.
-Napoleon was by this time on slightly better terms with the other farmers
-than before. It happened that there was in the yard a pile of timber which
-had been stacked there ten years earlier when a beech spinney was cleared.
-It was well seasoned, and Whymper had advised Napoleon to sell it; both
-Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick were anxious to buy it. Napoleon was
-hesitating between the two, unable to make up his mind. It was noticed
-that whenever he seemed on the point of coming to an agreement with
-Frederick, Snowball was declared to be in hiding at Foxwood, while, when
-he inclined toward Pilkington, Snowball was said to be at Pinchfield.
-
-Suddenly, early in the spring, an alarming thing was discovered. Snowball
-was secretly frequenting the farm by night! The animals were so disturbed
-that they could hardly sleep in their stalls. Every night, it was said, he
-came creeping in under cover of darkness and performed all kinds of
-mischief. He stole the corn, he upset the milk-pails, he broke the eggs,
-he trampled the seedbeds, he gnawed the bark off the fruit trees. Whenever
-anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball. If a
-window was broken or a drain was blocked up, someone was certain to say
-that Snowball had come in the night and done it, and when the key of the
-store-shed was lost, the whole farm was convinced that Snowball had thrown
-it down the well. Curiously enough, they went on believing this even after
-the mislaid key was found under a sack of meal. The cows declared
-unanimously that Snowball crept into their stalls and milked them in their
-sleep. The rats, which had been troublesome that winter, were also said to
-be in league with Snowball.
-
-Napoleon decreed that there should be a full investigation into Snowball's
-activities. With his dogs in attendance he set out and made a careful tour
-of inspection of the farm buildings, the other animals following at a
-respectful distance. At every few steps Napoleon stopped and snuffed the
-ground for traces of Snowball's footsteps, which, he said, he could detect
-by the smell. He snuffed in every corner, in the barn, in the cow-shed,
-in the henhouses, in the vegetable garden, and found traces of Snowball
-almost everywhere. He would put his snout to the ground, give several deep
-sniffs, ad exclaim in a terrible voice, "Snowball! He has been here! I can
-smell him distinctly!" and at the word "Snowball" all the dogs let out
-blood-curdling growls and showed their side teeth.
-
-The animals were thoroughly frightened. It seemed to them as though
-Snowball were some kind of invisible influence, pervading the air about
-them and menacing them with all kinds of dangers. In the evening Squealer
-called them together, and with an alarmed expression on his face told
-them that he had some serious news to report.
-
-"Comrades!" cried Squealer, making little nervous skips, "a most terrible
-thing has been discovered. Snowball has sold himself to Frederick of
-Pinchfield Farm, who is even now plotting to attack us and take our farm
-away from us! Snowball is to act as his guide when the attack begins. But
-there is worse than that. We had thought that Snowball's rebellion was
-caused simply by his vanity and ambition. But we were wrong, comrades. Do
-you know what the real reason was? Snowball was in league with Jones from
-the very start! He was Jones's secret agent all the time. It has all been
-proved by documents which he left behind him and which we have only just
-discovered. To my mind this explains a great deal, comrades. Did we not
-see for ourselves how he attempted--fortunately without success--to get us
-defeated and destroyed at the Battle of the Cowshed?"
-
-The animals were stupefied. This was a wickedness far outdoing Snowball's
-destruction of the windmill. But it was some minutes before they could
-fully take it in. They all remembered, or thought they remembered, how
-they had seen Snowball charging ahead of them at the Battle of the
-Cowshed, how he had rallied and encouraged them at every turn, and how he
-had not paused for an instant even when the pellets from Jones's gun had
-wounded his back. At first it was a little difficult to see how this
-fitted in with his being on Jones's side. Even Boxer, who seldom asked
-questions, was puzzled. He lay down, tucked his fore hoofs beneath him,
-shut his eyes, and with a hard effort managed to formulate his thoughts.
-
-"I do not believe that," he said. "Snowball fought bravely at the Battle
-of the Cowshed. I saw him myself. Did we not give him 'Animal Hero, first
-Class,' immediately afterwards?"
-
-"That was our mistake, comrade. For we know now--it is all written down in
-the secret documents that we have found--that in reality he was trying to
-lure us to our doom."
-
-"But he was wounded," said Boxer. "We all saw him running with blood."
-
-"That was part of the arrangement!" cried Squealer. "Jones's shot only
-grazed him. I could show you this in his own writing, if you were able to
-read it. The plot was for Snowball, at the critical moment, to give the
-signal for flight and leave the field to the enemy. And he very nearly
-succeeded--I will even say, comrades, he WOULD have succeeded if it had
-not been for our heroic Leader, Comrade Napoleon. Do you not remember how,
-just at the moment when Jones and his men had got inside the yard,
-Snowball suddenly turned and fled, and many animals followed him? And do
-you not remember, too, that it was just at that moment, when panic was
-spreading and all seemed lost, that Comrade Napoleon sprang forward with a
-cry of 'Death to Humanity!' and sank his teeth in Jones's leg? Surely you
-remember THAT, comrades?" exclaimed Squealer, frisking from side to side.
-
-Now when Squealer described the scene so graphically, it seemed to the
-animals that they did remember it. At any rate, they remembered that at
-the critical moment of the battle Snowball had turned to flee. But Boxer
-was still a little uneasy.
-
-"I do not believe that Snowball was a traitor at the beginning," he said
-finally. "What he has done since is different. But I believe that at the
-Battle of the Cowshed he was a good comrade."
-
-"Our Leader, Comrade Napoleon," announced Squealer, speaking very slowly
-and firmly, "has stated categorically--categorically, comrade--that
-Snowball was Jones's agent from the very beginning--yes, and from long
-before the Rebellion was ever thought of."
-
-"Ah, that is different!" said Boxer. "If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must
-be right."
-
-"That is the true spirit, comrade!" cried Squealer, but it was noticed he
-cast a very ugly look at Boxer with his little twinkling eyes. He turned
-to go, then paused and added impressively: "I warn every animal on this
-farm to keep his eyes very wide open. For we have reason to think that
-some of Snowball's secret agents are lurking among us at this moment!"
-
-Four days later, in the late afternoon, Napoleon ordered all the animals
-to assemble in the yard. When they were all gathered together, Napoleon
-emerged from the farmhouse, wearing both his medals (for he had recently
-awarded himself "Animal Hero, First Class", and "Animal Hero, Second
-Class"), with his nine huge dogs frisking round him and uttering growls
-that sent shivers down all the animals' spines. They all cowered silently
-in their places, seeming to know in advance that some terrible thing was
-about to happen.
-
-Napoleon stood sternly surveying his audience; then he uttered a
-high-pitched whimper. Immediately the dogs bounded forward, seized four of
-the pigs by the ear and dragged them, squealing with pain and terror, to
-Napoleon's feet. The pigs' ears were bleeding, the dogs had tasted blood,
-and for a few moments they appeared to go quite mad. To the amazement of
-everybody, three of them flung themselves upon Boxer. Boxer saw them
-coming and put out his great hoof, caught a dog in mid-air, and pinned
-him to the ground. The dog shrieked for mercy and the other two fled with
-their tails between their legs. Boxer looked at Napoleon to know whether
-he should crush the dog to death or let it go. Napoleon appeared to change
-countenance, and sharply ordered Boxer to let the dog go, whereat Boxer
-lifted his hoof, and the dog slunk away, bruised and howling.
-
-Presently the tumult died down. The four pigs waited, trembling, with
-guilt written on every line of their countenances. Napoleon now called
-upon them to confess their crimes. They were the same four pigs as had
-protested when Napoleon abolished the Sunday Meetings. Without any further
-prompting they confessed that they had been secretly in touch with
-Snowball ever since his expulsion, that they had collaborated with him in
-destroying the windmill, and that they had entered into an agreement with
-him to hand over Animal Farm to Mr. Frederick. They added that Snowball
-had privately admitted to them that he had been Jones's secret agent for
-years past. When they had finished their confession, the dogs promptly
-tore their throats out, and in a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether
-any other animal had anything to confess.
-
-The three hens who had been the ringleaders in the attempted rebellion
-over the eggs now came forward and stated that Snowball had appeared to
-them in a dream and incited them to disobey Napoleon's orders. They, too,
-were slaughtered. Then a goose came forward and confessed to having
-secreted six ears of corn during the last year's harvest and eaten them in
-the night. Then a sheep confessed to having urinated in the drinking
-pool--urged to do this, so she said, by Snowball--and two other sheep
-confessed to having murdered an old ram, an especially devoted follower of
-Napoleon, by chasing him round and round a bonfire when he was suffering
-from a cough. They were all slain on the spot. And so the tale of
-confessions and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses
-lying before Napoleon's feet and the air was heavy with the smell of
-blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones.
-
-When it was all over, the remaining animals, except for the pigs and dogs,
-crept away in a body. They were shaken and miserable. They did not know
-which was more shocking--the treachery of the animals who had leagued
-themselves with Snowball, or the cruel retribution they had just
-witnessed. In the old days there had often been scenes of bloodshed
-equally terrible, but it seemed to all of them that it was far worse now
-that it was happening among themselves. Since Jones had left the farm,
-until today, no animal had killed another animal. Not even a rat had been
-killed. They had made their way on to the little knoll where the
-half-finished windmill stood, and with one accord they all lay down as
-though huddling together for warmth--Clover, Muriel, Benjamin, the cows,
-the sheep, and a whole flock of geese and hens--everyone, indeed, except
-the cat, who had suddenly disappeared just before Napoleon ordered the
-animals to assemble. For some time nobody spoke. Only Boxer remained on
-his feet. He fidgeted to and fro, swishing his long black tail against his
-sides and occasionally uttering a little whinny of surprise. Finally he
-said:
-
-"I do not understand it. I would not have believed that such things could
-happen on our farm. It must be due to some fault in ourselves. The
-solution, as I see it, is to work harder. From now onwards I shall get up
-a full hour earlier in the mornings."
-
-And he moved off at his lumbering trot and made for the quarry. Having got
-there, he collected two successive loads of stone and dragged them down to
-the windmill before retiring for the night.
-
-The animals huddled about Clover, not speaking. The knoll where they were
-lying gave them a wide prospect across the countryside. Most of Animal
-Farm was within their view--the long pasture stretching down to the main
-road, the hayfield, the spinney, the drinking pool, the ploughed fields
-where the young wheat was thick and green, and the red roofs of the farm
-buildings with the smoke curling from the chimneys. It was a clear spring
-evening. The grass and the bursting hedges were gilded by the level rays
-of the sun. Never had the farm--and with a kind of surprise they
-remembered that it was their own farm, every inch of it their own
-property--appeared to the animals so desirable a place. As Clover looked
-down the hillside her eyes filled with tears. If she could have spoken her
-thoughts, it would have been to say that this was not what they had aimed
-at when they had set themselves years ago to work for the overthrow of the
-human race. These scenes of terror and slaughter were not what they had
-looked forward to on that night when old Major first stirred them to
-rebellion. If she herself had had any picture of the future, it had been
-of a society of animals set free from hunger and the whip, all equal, each
-working according to his capacity, the strong protecting the weak, as she
-had protected the lost brood of ducklings with her foreleg on the night of
-Major's speech. Instead--she did not know why--they had come to a time
-when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed
-everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after
-confessing to shocking crimes. There was no thought of rebellion or
-disobedience in her mind. She knew that, even as things were, they were
-far better off than they had been in the days of Jones, and that before
-all else it was needful to prevent the return of the human beings.
-Whatever happened she would remain faithful, work hard, carry out the
-orders that were given to her, and accept the leadership of Napoleon. But
-still, it was not for this that she and all the other animals had hoped
-and toiled. It was not for this that they had built the windmill and faced
-the bullets of Jones's gun. Such were her thoughts, though she lacked the
-words to express them.
-
-At last, feeling this to be in some way a substitute for the words she was
-unable to find, she began to sing 'Beasts of England'. The other animals
-sitting round her took it up, and they sang it three times over--very
-tunefully, but slowly and mournfully, in a way they had never sung it
-before.
-
-They had just finished singing it for the third time when Squealer,
-attended by two dogs, approached them with the air of having something
-important to say. He announced that, by a special decree of Comrade
-Napoleon, 'Beasts of England' had been abolished. From now onwards it was
-forbidden to sing it.
-
-The animals were taken aback.
-
-"Why?" cried Muriel.
-
-"It's no longer needed, comrade," said Squealer stiffly. "'Beasts of
-England' was the song of the Rebellion. But the Rebellion is now
-completed. The execution of the traitors this afternoon was the final act.
-The enemy both external and internal has been defeated. In 'Beasts of
-England' we expressed our longing for a better society in days to come.
-But that society has now been established. Clearly this song has no longer
-any purpose."
-
-Frightened though they were, some of the animals might possibly have
-protested, but at this moment the sheep set up their usual bleating of
-"Four legs good, two legs bad," which went on for several minutes and put
-an end to the discussion.
-
-So 'Beasts of England' was heard no more. In its place Minimus, the poet,
-had composed another song which began:
-
-
-Animal Farm, Animal Farm,
-Never through me shalt thou come to harm!
-
-
-and this was sung every Sunday morning after the hoisting of the flag.
-But somehow neither the words nor the tune ever seemed to the animals to
-come up to 'Beasts of England'.
-
-
-
-
-    Chapter VIII
-
-
-
-A few days later, when the terror caused by the executions had died down,
-some of the animals remembered--or thought they remembered--that the Sixth
-Commandment decreed "No animal shall kill any other animal." And though no
-one cared to mention it in the hearing of the pigs or the dogs, it was
-felt that the killings which had taken place did not square with this.
-Clover asked Benjamin to read her the Sixth Commandment, and when
-Benjamin, as usual, said that he refused to meddle in such matters, she
-fetched Muriel. Muriel read the Commandment for her. It ran: "No animal
-shall kill any other animal WITHOUT CAUSE." Somehow or other, the last two
-words had slipped out of the animals' memory. But they saw now that the
-Commandment had not been violated; for clearly there was good reason for
-killing the traitors who had leagued themselves with Snowball.
-
-Throughout the year the animals worked even harder than they had worked in
-the previous year. To rebuild the windmill, with walls twice as thick as
-before, and to finish it by the appointed date, together with the regular
-work of the farm, was a tremendous labour. There were times when it seemed
-to the animals that they worked longer hours and fed no better than they
-had done in Jones's day. On Sunday mornings Squealer, holding down a long
-strip of paper with his trotter, would read out to them lists of figures
-proving that the production of every class of foodstuff had increased by
-two hundred per cent, three hundred per cent, or five hundred per cent,
-as the case might be. The animals saw no reason to disbelieve him,
-especially as they could no longer remember very clearly what conditions
-had been like before the Rebellion. All the same, there were days when
-they felt that they would sooner have had less figures and more food.
-
-All orders were now issued through Squealer or one of the other pigs.
-Napoleon himself was not seen in public as often as once in a fortnight.
-When he did appear, he was attended not only by his retinue of dogs but by
-a black cockerel who marched in front of him and acted as a kind of
-trumpeter, letting out a loud "cock-a-doodle-doo" before Napoleon spoke.
-Even in the farmhouse, it was said, Napoleon inhabited separate apartments
-from the others. He took his meals alone, with two dogs to wait upon him,
-and always ate from the Crown Derby dinner service which had been in the
-glass cupboard in the drawing-room. It was also announced that the gun
-would be fired every year on Napoleon's birthday, as well as on the other
-two anniversaries.
-
-Napoleon was now never spoken of simply as "Napoleon." He was always
-referred to in formal style as "our Leader, Comrade Napoleon," and this
-pigs liked to invent for him such titles as Father of All Animals, Terror
-of Mankind, Protector of the Sheep-fold, Ducklings' Friend, and the like.
-In his speeches, Squealer would talk with the tears rolling down his
-cheeks of Napoleon's wisdom the goodness of his heart, and the deep love
-he bore to all animals everywhere, even and especially the unhappy animals
-who still lived in ignorance and slavery on other farms. It had become
-usual to give Napoleon the credit for every successful achievement and
-every stroke of good fortune. You would often hear one hen remark to
-another, "Under the guidance of our Leader, Comrade Napoleon, I have laid
-five eggs in six days"; or two cows, enjoying a drink at the pool, would
-exclaim, "Thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, how excellent this
-water tastes!" The general feeling on the farm was well expressed in a
-poem entitled Comrade Napoleon, which was composed by Minimus and which
-ran as follows:
-
-
-Friend of fatherless!
-Fountain of happiness!
-Lord of the swill-bucket! Oh, how my soul is on
-Fire when I gaze at thy
-Calm and commanding eye,
-Like the sun in the sky,
-Comrade Napoleon!
-
-Thou are the giver of
-All that thy creatures love,
-Full belly twice a day, clean straw to roll upon;
-Every beast great or small
-Sleeps at peace in his stall,
-Thou watchest over all,
-Comrade Napoleon!
-
-Had I a sucking-pig,
-Ere he had grown as big
-Even as a pint bottle or as a rolling-pin,
-He should have learned to be
-Faithful and true to thee,
-Yes, his first squeak should be
-"Comrade Napoleon!"
-
-
-Napoleon approved of this poem and caused it to be inscribed on the wall
-of the big barn, at the opposite end from the Seven Commandments. It was
-surmounted by a portrait of Napoleon, in profile, executed by Squealer in
-white paint.
-
-Meanwhile, through the agency of Whymper, Napoleon was engaged in
-complicated negotiations with Frederick and Pilkington. The pile of timber
-was still unsold. Of the two, Frederick was the more anxious to get hold
-of it, but he would not offer a reasonable price. At the same time there
-were renewed rumours that Frederick and his men were plotting to attack
-Animal Farm and to destroy the windmill, the building of which had aroused
-furious jealousy in him. Snowball was known to be still skulking on
-Pinchfield Farm. In the middle of the summer the animals were alarmed to
-hear that three hens had come forward and confessed that, inspired by
-Snowball, they had entered into a plot to murder Napoleon. They were
-executed immediately, and fresh precautions for Napoleon's safety were
-taken. Four dogs guarded his bed at night, one at each corner, and a young
-pig named Pinkeye was given the task of tasting all his food before he ate
-it, lest it should be poisoned.
-
-At about the same time it was given out that Napoleon had arranged to sell
-the pile of timber to Mr. Pilkington; he was also going to enter into a
-regular agreement for the exchange of certain products between Animal Farm
-and Foxwood. The relations between Napoleon and Pilkington, though they
-were only conducted through Whymper, were now almost friendly. The animals
-distrusted Pilkington, as a human being, but greatly preferred him to
-Frederick, whom they both feared and hated. As the summer wore on, and the
-windmill neared completion, the rumours of an impending treacherous attack
-grew stronger and stronger. Frederick, it was said, intended to bring
-against them twenty men all armed with guns, and he had already bribed the
-magistrates and police, so that if he could once get hold of the
-title-deeds of Animal Farm they would ask no questions. Moreover, terrible
-stories were leaking out from Pinchfield about the cruelties that
-Frederick practised upon his animals. He had flogged an old horse to
-death, he starved his cows, he had killed a dog by throwing it into the
-furnace, he amused himself in the evenings by making cocks fight with
-splinters of razor-blade tied to their spurs. The animals' blood boiled
-with rage when they heard of these things being done to their comrades,
-and sometimes they clamoured to be allowed to go out in a body and attack
-Pinchfield Farm, drive out the humans, and set the animals free. But
-Squealer counselled them to avoid rash actions and trust in Comrade
-Napoleon's strategy.
-
-Nevertheless, feeling against Frederick continued to run high. One Sunday
-morning Napoleon appeared in the barn and explained that he had never at
-any time contemplated selling the pile of timber to Frederick; he
-considered it beneath his dignity, he said, to have dealings with
-scoundrels of that description. The pigeons who were still sent out to
-spread tidings of the Rebellion were forbidden to set foot anywhere on
-Foxwood, and were also ordered to drop their former slogan of "Death to
-Humanity" in favour of "Death to Frederick." In the late summer yet
-another of Snowball's machinations was laid bare. The wheat crop was full
-of weeds, and it was discovered that on one of his nocturnal visits
-Snowball had mixed weed seeds with the seed corn. A gander who had been
-privy to the plot had confessed his guilt to Squealer and immediately
-committed suicide by swallowing deadly nightshade berries. The animals
-now also learned that Snowball had never--as many of them had believed
-hitherto--received the order of "Animal Hero, First Class." This was
-merely a legend which had been spread some time after the Battle of the
-Cowshed by Snowball himself. So far from being decorated, he had been
-censured for showing cowardice in the battle. Once again some of the
-animals heard this with a certain bewilderment, but Squealer was soon able
-to convince them that their memories had been at fault.
-
-In the autumn, by a tremendous, exhausting effort--for the harvest had to
-be gathered at almost the same time--the windmill was finished. The
-machinery had still to be installed, and Whymper was negotiating the
-purchase of it, but the structure was completed. In the teeth of every
-difficulty, in spite of inexperience, of primitive implements, of bad luck
-and of Snowball's treachery, the work had been finished punctually to the
-very day! Tired out but proud, the animals walked round and round their
-masterpiece, which appeared even more beautiful in their eyes than when it
-had been built the first time. Moreover, the walls were twice as thick as
-before. Nothing short of explosives would lay them low this time! And when
-they thought of how they had laboured, what discouragements they had
-overcome, and the enormous difference that would be made in their lives
-when the sails were turning and the dynamos running--when they thought of
-all this, their tiredness forsook them and they gambolled round and round
-the windmill, uttering cries of triumph. Napoleon himself, attended by his
-dogs and his cockerel, came down to inspect the completed work; he
-personally congratulated the animals on their achievement, and announced
-that the mill would be named Napoleon Mill.
-
-Two days later the animals were called together for a special meeting in
-the barn. They were struck dumb with surprise when Napoleon announced that
-he had sold the pile of timber to Frederick. Tomorrow Frederick's wagons
-would arrive and begin carting it away. Throughout the whole period of his
-seeming friendship with Pilkington, Napoleon had really been in secret
-agreement with Frederick.
-
-All relations with Foxwood had been broken off; insulting messages had
-been sent to Pilkington. The pigeons had been told to avoid Pinchfield
-Farm and to alter their slogan from "Death to Frederick" to "Death to
-Pilkington." At the same time Napoleon assured the animals that the
-stories of an impending attack on Animal Farm were completely untrue, and
-that the tales about Frederick's cruelty to his own animals had been
-greatly exaggerated. All these rumours had probably originated with
-Snowball and his agents. It now appeared that Snowball was not, after all,
-hiding on Pinchfield Farm, and in fact had never been there in his life:
-he was living--in considerable luxury, so it was said--at Foxwood, and had
-in reality been a pensioner of Pilkington for years past.
-
-The pigs were in ecstasies over Napoleon's cunning. By seeming to be
-friendly with Pilkington he had forced Frederick to raise his price by
-twelve pounds. But the superior quality of Napoleon's mind, said Squealer,
-was shown in the fact that he trusted nobody, not even Frederick.
-Frederick had wanted to pay for the timber with something called a cheque,
-which, it seemed, was a piece of paper with a promise to pay written upon
-it. But Napoleon was too clever for him. He had demanded payment in real
-five-pound notes, which were to be handed over before the timber was
-removed. Already Frederick had paid up; and the sum he had paid was just
-enough to buy the machinery for the windmill.
-
-Meanwhile the timber was being carted away at high speed. When it was all
-gone, another special meeting was held in the barn for the animals to
-inspect Frederick's bank-notes. Smiling beatifically, and wearing both his
-decorations, Napoleon reposed on a bed of straw on the platform, with the
-money at his side, neatly piled on a china dish from the farmhouse
-kitchen. The animals filed slowly past, and each gazed his fill. And Boxer
-put out his nose to sniff at the bank-notes, and the flimsy white things
-stirred and rustled in his breath.
-
-Three days later there was a terrible hullabaloo. Whymper, his face deadly
-pale, came racing up the path on his bicycle, flung it down in the yard
-and rushed straight into the farmhouse. The next moment a choking roar of
-rage sounded from Napoleon's apartments. The news of what had happened
-sped round the farm like wildfire. The banknotes were forgeries! Frederick
-had got the timber for nothing!
-
-Napoleon called the animals together immediately and in a terrible voice
-pronounced the death sentence upon Frederick. When captured, he said,
-Frederick should be boiled alive. At the same time he warned them that
-after this treacherous deed the worst was to be expected. Frederick and
-his men might make their long-expected attack at any moment. Sentinels
-were placed at all the approaches to the farm. In addition, four pigeons
-were sent to Foxwood with a conciliatory message, which it was hoped might
-re-establish good relations with Pilkington.
-
-The very next morning the attack came. The animals were at breakfast when
-the look-outs came racing in with the news that Frederick and his
-followers had already come through the five-barred gate. Boldly enough the
-animals sallied forth to meet them, but this time they did not have the
-easy victory that they had had in the Battle of the Cowshed. There were
-fifteen men, with half a dozen guns between them, and they opened fire as
-soon as they got within fifty yards. The animals could not face the
-terrible explosions and the stinging pellets, and in spite of the efforts
-of Napoleon and Boxer to rally them, they were soon driven back. A number
-of them were already wounded. They took refuge in the farm buildings and
-peeped cautiously out from chinks and knot-holes. The whole of the big
-pasture, including the windmill, was in the hands of the enemy. For the
-moment even Napoleon seemed at a loss. He paced up and down without a
-word, his tail rigid and twitching. Wistful glances were sent in the
-direction of Foxwood. If Pilkington and his men would help them, the day
-might yet be won. But at this moment the four pigeons, who had been sent
-out on the day before, returned, one of them bearing a scrap of paper from
-Pilkington. On it was pencilled the words: "Serves you right."
-
-Meanwhile Frederick and his men had halted about the windmill. The animals
-watched them, and a murmur of dismay went round. Two of the men had
-produced a crowbar and a sledge hammer. They were going to knock the
-windmill down.
-
-"Impossible!" cried Napoleon. "We have built the walls far too thick for
-that. They could not knock it down in a week. Courage, comrades!"
-
-But Benjamin was watching the movements of the men intently. The two with
-the hammer and the crowbar were drilling a hole near the base of the
-windmill. Slowly, and with an air almost of amusement, Benjamin nodded his
-long muzzle.
-
-"I thought so," he said. "Do you not see what they are doing? In another
-moment they are going to pack blasting powder into that hole."
-
-Terrified, the animals waited. It was impossible now to venture out of the
-shelter of the buildings. After a few minutes the men were seen to be
-running in all directions. Then there was a deafening roar. The pigeons
-swirled into the air, and all the animals, except Napoleon, flung
-themselves flat on their bellies and hid their faces. When they got up
-again, a huge cloud of black smoke was hanging where the windmill had
-been. Slowly the breeze drifted it away. The windmill had ceased to exist!
-
-At this sight the animals' courage returned to them. The fear and despair
-they had felt a moment earlier were drowned in their rage against this
-vile, contemptible act. A mighty cry for vengeance went up, and without
-waiting for further orders they charged forth in a body and made straight
-for the enemy. This time they did not heed the cruel pellets that swept
-over them like hail. It was a savage, bitter battle. The men fired again
-and again, and, when the animals got to close quarters, lashed out with
-their sticks and their heavy boots. A cow, three sheep, and two geese were
-killed, and nearly everyone was wounded. Even Napoleon, who was directing
-operations from the rear, had the tip of his tail chipped by a pellet. But
-the men did not go unscathed either. Three of them had their heads broken
-by blows from Boxer's hoofs; another was gored in the belly by a cow's
-horn; another had his trousers nearly torn off by Jessie and Bluebell. And
-when the nine dogs of Napoleon's own bodyguard, whom he had instructed to
-make a detour under cover of the hedge, suddenly appeared on the men's
-flank, baying ferociously, panic overtook them. They saw that they were in
-danger of being surrounded. Frederick shouted to his men to get out while
-the going was good, and the next moment the cowardly enemy was running for
-dear life. The animals chased them right down to the bottom of the field,
-and got in some last kicks at them as they forced their way through the
-thorn hedge.
-
-They had won, but they were weary and bleeding. Slowly they began to limp
-back towards the farm. The sight of their dead comrades stretched upon the
-grass moved some of them to tears. And for a little while they halted in
-sorrowful silence at the place where the windmill had once stood. Yes, it
-was gone; almost the last trace of their labour was gone! Even the
-foundations were partially destroyed. And in rebuilding it they could not
-this time, as before, make use of the fallen stones. This time the stones
-had vanished too. The force of the explosion had flung them to distances
-of hundreds of yards. It was as though the windmill had never been.
-
-As they approached the farm Squealer, who had unaccountably been absent
-during the fighting, came skipping towards them, whisking his tail and
-beaming with satisfaction. And the animals heard, from the direction of
-the farm buildings, the solemn booming of a gun.
-
-"What is that gun firing for?" said Boxer.
-
-"To celebrate our victory!" cried Squealer.
-
-"What victory?" said Boxer. His knees were bleeding, he had lost a shoe
-and split his hoof, and a dozen pellets had lodged themselves in his hind
-leg.
-
-"What victory, comrade? Have we not driven the enemy off our soil--the
-sacred soil of Animal Farm?"
-
-"But they have destroyed the windmill. And we had worked on it for two
-years!"
-
-"What matter? We will build another windmill. We will build six windmills
-if we feel like it. You do not appreciate, comrade, the mighty thing that
-we have done. The enemy was in occupation of this very ground that we
-stand upon. And now--thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon--we have
-won every inch of it back again!"
-
-"Then we have won back what we had before," said Boxer.
-
-"That is our victory," said Squealer.
-
-They limped into the yard. The pellets under the skin of Boxer's leg
-smarted painfully. He saw ahead of him the heavy labour of rebuilding the
-windmill from the foundations, and already in imagination he braced
-himself for the task. But for the first time it occurred to him that he
-was eleven years old and that perhaps his great muscles were not quite
-what they had once been.
-
-But when the animals saw the green flag flying, and heard the gun firing
-again--seven times it was fired in all--and heard the speech that Napoleon
-made, congratulating them on their conduct, it did seem to them after all
-that they had won a great victory. The animals slain in the battle were
-given a solemn funeral. Boxer and Clover pulled the wagon which served as
-a hearse, and Napoleon himself walked at the head of the procession. Two
-whole days were given over to celebrations. There were songs, speeches,
-and more firing of the gun, and a special gift of an apple was bestowed on
-every animal, with two ounces of corn for each bird and three biscuits for
-each dog. It was announced that the battle would be called the Battle of
-the Windmill, and that Napoleon had created a new decoration, the Order
-of the Green Banner, which he had conferred upon himself. In the general
-rejoicings the unfortunate affair of the banknotes was forgotten.
-
-It was a few days later than this that the pigs came upon a case of whisky
-in the cellars of the farmhouse. It had been overlooked at the time when
-the house was first occupied. That night there came from the farmhouse the
-sound of loud singing, in which, to everyone's surprise, the strains of
-'Beasts of England' were mixed up. At about half past nine Napoleon,
-wearing an old bowler hat of Mr. Jones's, was distinctly seen to emerge
-from the back door, gallop rapidly round the yard, and disappear indoors
-again. But in the morning a deep silence hung over the farmhouse. Not a
-pig appeared to be stirring. It was nearly nine o'clock when Squealer made
-his appearance, walking slowly and dejectedly, his eyes dull, his tail
-hanging limply behind him, and with every appearance of being seriously
-ill. He called the animals together and told them that he had a terrible
-piece of news to impart. Comrade Napoleon was dying!
-
-A cry of lamentation went up. Straw was laid down outside the doors of the
-farmhouse, and the animals walked on tiptoe. With tears in their eyes they
-asked one another what they should do if their Leader were taken away from
-them. A rumour went round that Snowball had after all contrived to
-introduce poison into Napoleon's food. At eleven o'clock Squealer came
-out to make another announcement. As his last act upon earth, Comrade
-Napoleon had pronounced a solemn decree: the drinking of alcohol was to be
-punished by death.
-
-By the evening, however, Napoleon appeared to be somewhat better, and the
-following morning Squealer was able to tell them that he was well on the
-way to recovery. By the evening of that day Napoleon was back at work, and
-on the next day it was learned that he had instructed Whymper to purchase
-in Willingdon some booklets on brewing and distilling. A week later
-Napoleon gave orders that the small paddock beyond the orchard, which it
-had previously been intended to set aside as a grazing-ground for animals
-who were past work, was to be ploughed up. It was given out that the
-pasture was exhausted and needed re-seeding; but it soon became known that
-Napoleon intended to sow it with barley.
-
-About this time there occurred a strange incident which hardly anyone was
-able to understand. One night at about twelve o'clock there was a loud
-crash in the yard, and the animals rushed out of their stalls. It was a
-moonlit night. At the foot of the end wall of the big barn, where the
-Seven Commandments were written, there lay a ladder broken in two pieces.
-Squealer, temporarily stunned, was sprawling beside it, and near at hand
-there lay a lantern, a paint-brush, and an overturned pot of white paint.
-The dogs immediately made a ring round Squealer, and escorted him back to
-the farmhouse as soon as he was able to walk. None of the animals could
-form any idea as to what this meant, except old Benjamin, who nodded his
-muzzle with a knowing air, and seemed to understand, but would say nothing.
-
-But a few days later Muriel, reading over the Seven Commandments to
-herself, noticed that there was yet another of them which the animals had
-remembered wrong. They had thought the Fifth Commandment was "No animal
-shall drink alcohol," but there were two words that they had forgotten.
-Actually the Commandment read: "No animal shall drink alcohol TO EXCESS."
-
-
-
-
-    Chapter IX
-
-
-
-Boxer's split hoof was a long time in healing. They had started the
-rebuilding of the windmill the day after the victory celebrations were
-ended. Boxer refused to take even a day off work, and made it a point of
-honour not to let it be seen that he was in pain. In the evenings he would
-admit privately to Clover that the hoof troubled him a great deal. Clover
-treated the hoof with poultices of herbs which she prepared by chewing
-them, and both she and Benjamin urged Boxer to work less hard. "A horse's
-lungs do not last for ever," she said to him. But Boxer would not listen.
-He had, he said, only one real ambition left--to see the windmill well
-under way before he reached the age for retirement.
-
-At the beginning, when the laws of Animal Farm were first formulated,
-the retiring age had been fixed for horses and pigs at twelve, for cows at
-fourteen, for dogs at nine, for sheep at seven, and for hens and geese at
-five. Liberal old-age pensions had been agreed upon. As yet no animal had
-actually retired on pension, but of late the subject had been discussed
-more and more. Now that the small field beyond the orchard had been set
-aside for barley, it was rumoured that a corner of the large pasture was
-to be fenced off and turned into a grazing-ground for superannuated
-animals. For a horse, it was said, the pension would be five pounds of
-corn a day and, in winter, fifteen pounds of hay, with a carrot or
-possibly an apple on public holidays. Boxer's twelfth birthday was due in
-the late summer of the following year.
-
-Meanwhile life was hard. The winter was as cold as the last one had been,
-and food was even shorter. Once again all rations were reduced, except
-those of the pigs and the dogs. A too rigid equality in rations, Squealer
-explained, would have been contrary to the principles of Animalism. In any
-case he had no difficulty in proving to the other animals that they were
-NOT in reality short of food, whatever the appearances might be. For the
-time being, certainly, it had been found necessary to make a readjustment
-of rations (Squealer always spoke of it as a "readjustment," never as a
-"reduction"), but in comparison with the days of Jones, the improvement
-was enormous. Reading out the figures in a shrill, rapid voice, he proved
-to them in detail that they had more oats, more hay, more turnips than
-they had had in Jones's day, that they worked shorter hours, that their
-drinking water was of better quality, that they lived longer, that a
-larger proportion of their young ones survived infancy, and that they had
-more straw in their stalls and suffered less from fleas. The animals
-believed every word of it. Truth to tell, Jones and all he stood for had
-almost faded out of their memories. They knew that life nowadays was harsh
-and bare, that they were often hungry and often cold, and that they were
-usually working when they were not asleep. But doubtless it had been worse
-in the old days. They were glad to believe so. Besides, in those days they
-had been slaves and now they were free, and that made all the difference,
-as Squealer did not fail to point out.
-
-There were many more mouths to feed now. In the autumn the four sows had
-all littered about simultaneously, producing thirty-one young pigs between
-them. The young pigs were piebald, and as Napoleon was the only boar on
-the farm, it was possible to guess at their parentage. It was announced
-that later, when bricks and timber had been purchased, a schoolroom would
-be built in the farmhouse garden. For the time being, the young pigs were
-given their instruction by Napoleon himself in the farmhouse kitchen. They
-took their exercise in the garden, and were discouraged from playing with
-the other young animals. About this time, too, it was laid down as a rule
-that when a pig and any other animal met on the path, the other animal
-must stand aside: and also that all pigs, of whatever degree, were to have
-the privilege of wearing green ribbons on their tails on Sundays.
-
-The farm had had a fairly successful year, but was still short of money.
-There were the bricks, sand, and lime for the schoolroom to be purchased,
-and it would also be necessary to begin saving up again for the machinery
-for the windmill. Then there were lamp oil and candles for the house,
-sugar for Napoleon's own table (he forbade this to the other pigs, on the
-ground that it made them fat), and all the usual replacements such as
-tools, nails, string, coal, wire, scrap-iron, and dog biscuits. A stump of
-hay and part of the potato crop were sold off, and the contract for eggs
-was increased to six hundred a week, so that that year the hens barely
-hatched enough chicks to keep their numbers at the same level. Rations,
-reduced in December, were reduced again in February, and lanterns in the
-stalls were forbidden to save oil. But the pigs seemed comfortable enough,
-and in fact were putting on weight if anything. One afternoon in late
-February a warm, rich, appetising scent, such as the animals had never
-smelt before, wafted itself across the yard from the little brew-house,
-which had been disused in Jones's time, and which stood beyond the
-kitchen. Someone said it was the smell of cooking barley. The animals
-sniffed the air hungrily and wondered whether a warm mash was being
-prepared for their supper. But no warm mash appeared, and on the following
-Sunday it was announced that from now onwards all barley would be reserved
-for the pigs. The field beyond the orchard had already been sown with
-barley. And the news soon leaked out that every pig was now receiving a
-ration of a pint of beer daily, with half a gallon for Napoleon himself,
-which was always served to him in the Crown Derby soup tureen.
-
-But if there were hardships to be borne, they were partly offset by the
-fact that life nowadays had a greater dignity than it had had before.
-There were more songs, more speeches, more processions. Napoleon had
-commanded that once a week there should be held something called a
-Spontaneous Demonstration, the object of which was to celebrate the
-struggles and triumphs of Animal Farm. At the appointed time the animals
-would leave their work and march round the precincts of the farm in
-military formation, with the pigs leading, then the horses, then the cows,
-then the sheep, and then the poultry. The dogs flanked the procession and
-at the head of all marched Napoleon's black cockerel. Boxer and Clover
-always carried between them a green banner marked with the hoof and the
-horn and the caption, "Long live Comrade Napoleon!" Afterwards there were
-recitations of poems composed in Napoleon's honour, and a speech by
-Squealer giving particulars of the latest increases in the production of
-foodstuffs, and on occasion a shot was fired from the gun. The sheep were
-the greatest devotees of the Spontaneous Demonstration, and if anyone
-complained (as a few animals sometimes did, when no pigs or dogs were near)
-that they wasted time and meant a lot of standing about in the cold, the
-sheep were sure to silence him with a tremendous bleating of "Four legs
-good, two legs bad!" But by and large the animals enjoyed these
-celebrations. They found it comforting to be reminded that, after all,
-they were truly their own masters and that the work they did was for their
-own benefit. So that, what with the songs, the processions, Squealer's
-lists of figures, the thunder of the gun, the crowing of the cockerel,
-and the fluttering of the flag, they were able to forget that their
-bellies were empty, at least part of the time.
-
-In April, Animal Farm was proclaimed a Republic, and it became necessary
-to elect a President. There was only one candidate, Napoleon, who was
-elected unanimously. On the same day it was given out that fresh documents
-had been discovered which revealed further details about Snowball's
-complicity with Jones. It now appeared that Snowball had not, as the
-animals had previously imagined, merely attempted to lose the Battle of
-the Cowshed by means of a stratagem, but had been openly fighting on
-Jones's side. In fact, it was he who had actually been the leader of the
-human forces, and had charged into battle with the words "Long live
-Humanity!" on his lips. The wounds on Snowball's back, which a few of the
-animals still remembered to have seen, had been inflicted by Napoleon's
-teeth.
-
-In the middle of the summer Moses the raven suddenly reappeared on the
-farm, after an absence of several years. He was quite unchanged, still did
-no work, and talked in the same strain as ever about Sugarcandy Mountain.
-He would perch on a stump, flap his black wings, and talk by the hour to
-anyone who would listen. "Up there, comrades," he would say solemnly,
-pointing to the sky with his large beak--"up there, just on the other side
-of that dark cloud that you can see--there it lies, Sugarcandy Mountain,
-that happy country where we poor animals shall rest for ever from our
-labours!" He even claimed to have been there on one of his higher flights,
-and to have seen the everlasting fields of clover and the linseed cake and
-lump sugar growing on the hedges. Many of the animals believed him. Their
-lives now, they reasoned, were hungry and laborious; was it not right and
-just that a better world should exist somewhere else? A thing that was
-difficult to determine was the attitude of the pigs towards Moses. They
-all declared contemptuously that his stories about Sugarcandy Mountain
-were lies, and yet they allowed him to remain on the farm, not working,
-with an allowance of a gill of beer a day.
-
-After his hoof had healed up, Boxer worked harder than ever. Indeed, all
-the animals worked like slaves that year. Apart from the regular work of
-the farm, and the rebuilding of the windmill, there was the schoolhouse
-for the young pigs, which was started in March. Sometimes the long hours
-on insufficient food were hard to bear, but Boxer never faltered. In
-nothing that he said or did was there any sign that his strength was not
-what it had been. It was only his appearance that was a little altered;
-his hide was less shiny than it had used to be, and his great haunches
-seemed to have shrunken. The others said, "Boxer will pick up when the
-spring grass comes on"; but the spring came and Boxer grew no fatter.
-Sometimes on the slope leading to the top of the quarry, when he braced
-his muscles against the weight of some vast boulder, it seemed that
-nothing kept him on his feet except the will to continue. At such times
-his lips were seen to form the words, "I will work harder"; he had no
-voice left. Once again Clover and Benjamin warned him to take care of his
-health, but Boxer paid no attention. His twelfth birthday was approaching.
-He did not care what happened so long as a good store of stone was
-accumulated before he went on pension.
-
-Late one evening in the summer, a sudden rumour ran round the farm that
-something had happened to Boxer. He had gone out alone to drag a load of
-stone down to the windmill. And sure enough, the rumour was true. A few
-minutes later two pigeons came racing in with the news; "Boxer has fallen!
-He is lying on his side and can't get up!"
-
-About half the animals on the farm rushed out to the knoll where the
-windmill stood. There lay Boxer, between the shafts of the cart, his neck
-stretched out, unable even to raise his head. His eyes were glazed, his
-sides matted with sweat. A thin stream of blood had trickled out of his
-mouth. Clover dropped to her knees at his side.
-
-"Boxer!" she cried, "how are you?"
-
-"It is my lung," said Boxer in a weak voice. "It does not matter. I think
-you will be able to finish the windmill without me. There is a pretty good
-store of stone accumulated. I had only another month to go in any case.
-To tell you the truth, I had been looking forward to my retirement. And
-perhaps, as Benjamin is growing old too, they will let him retire at the
-same time and be a companion to me."
-
-"We must get help at once," said Clover. "Run, somebody, and tell Squealer
-what has happened."
-
-All the other animals immediately raced back to the farmhouse to give
-Squealer the news. Only Clover remained, and Benjamin who lay down at
-Boxer's side, and, without speaking, kept the flies off him with his long
-tail. After about a quarter of an hour Squealer appeared, full of sympathy
-and concern. He said that Comrade Napoleon had learned with the very
-deepest distress of this misfortune to one of the most loyal workers on
-the farm, and was already making arrangements to send Boxer to be treated
-in the hospital at Willingdon. The animals felt a little uneasy at this.
-Except for Mollie and Snowball, no other animal had ever left the farm,
-and they did not like to think of their sick comrade in the hands of human
-beings. However, Squealer easily convinced them that the veterinary
-surgeon in Willingdon could treat Boxer's case more satisfactorily than
-could be done on the farm. And about half an hour later, when Boxer had
-somewhat recovered, he was with difficulty got on to his feet, and managed
-to limp back to his stall, where Clover and Benjamin had prepared a good
-bed of straw for him.
-
-For the next two days Boxer remained in his stall. The pigs had sent out a
-large bottle of pink medicine which they had found in the medicine chest
-in the bathroom, and Clover administered it to Boxer twice a day after
-meals. In the evenings she lay in his stall and talked to him, while
-Benjamin kept the flies off him. Boxer professed not to be sorry for what
-had happened. If he made a good recovery, he might expect to live another
-three years, and he looked forward to the peaceful days that he would
-spend in the corner of the big pasture. It would be the first time that he
-had had leisure to study and improve his mind. He intended, he said, to
-devote the rest of his life to learning the remaining twenty-two letters
-of the alphabet.
-
-However, Benjamin and Clover could only be with Boxer after working hours,
-and it was in the middle of the day when the van came to take him away.
-The animals were all at work weeding turnips under the supervision of a
-pig, when they were astonished to see Benjamin come galloping from the
-direction of the farm buildings, braying at the top of his voice. It was
-the first time that they had ever seen Benjamin excited--indeed, it was
-the first time that anyone had ever seen him gallop. "Quick, quick!" he
-shouted. "Come at once! They're taking Boxer away!" Without waiting for
-orders from the pig, the animals broke off work and raced back to the farm
-buildings. Sure enough, there in the yard was a large closed van, drawn by
-two horses, with lettering on its side and a sly-looking man in a
-low-crowned bowler hat sitting on the driver's seat. And Boxer's stall was
-empty.
-
-The animals crowded round the van. "Good-bye, Boxer!" they chorused,
-"good-bye!"
-
-"Fools! Fools!" shouted Benjamin, prancing round them and stamping the
-earth with his small hoofs. "Fools! Do you not see what is written on the
-side of that van?"
-
-That gave the animals pause, and there was a hush. Muriel began to spell
-out the words. But Benjamin pushed her aside and in the midst of a deadly
-silence he read:
-
-"'Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon. Dealer
-in Hides and Bone-Meal. Kennels Supplied.' Do you not understand what that
-means? They are taking Boxer to the knacker's!"
-
-A cry of horror burst from all the animals. At this moment the man on the
-box whipped up his horses and the van moved out of the yard at a smart
-trot. All the animals followed, crying out at the tops of their voices.
-Clover forced her way to the front. The van began to gather speed. Clover
-tried to stir her stout limbs to a gallop, and achieved a canter. "Boxer!"
-she cried. "Boxer! Boxer! Boxer!" And just at this moment, as though he
-had heard the uproar outside, Boxer's face, with the white stripe down his
-nose, appeared at the small window at the back of the van.
-
-"Boxer!" cried Clover in a terrible voice. "Boxer! Get out! Get out
-quickly! They're taking you to your death!"
-
-All the animals took up the cry of "Get out, Boxer, get out!" But the van
-was already gathering speed and drawing away from them. It was uncertain
-whether Boxer had understood what Clover had said. But a moment later his
-face disappeared from the window and there was the sound of a tremendous
-drumming of hoofs inside the van. He was trying to kick his way out. The
-time had been when a few kicks from Boxer's hoofs would have smashed the
-van to matchwood. But alas! his strength had left him; and in a few
-moments the sound of drumming hoofs grew fainter and died away. In
-desperation the animals began appealing to the two horses which drew the
-van to stop. "Comrades, comrades!" they shouted. "Don't take your own
-brother to his death!" But the stupid brutes, too ignorant to realise
-what was happening, merely set back their ears and quickened their pace.
-Boxer's face did not reappear at the window. Too late, someone thought of
-racing ahead and shutting the five-barred gate; but in another moment the
-van was through it and rapidly disappearing down the road. Boxer was never
-seen again.
-
-Three days later it was announced that he had died in the hospital at
-Willingdon, in spite of receiving every attention a horse could have.
-Squealer came to announce the news to the others. He had, he said, been
-present during Boxer's last hours.
-
-"It was the most affecting sight I have ever seen!" said Squealer, lifting
-his trotter and wiping away a tear. "I was at his bedside at the very
-last. And at the end, almost too weak to speak, he whispered in my ear
-that his sole sorrow was to have passed on before the windmill was
-finished. 'Forward, comrades!' he whispered. 'Forward in the name of the
-Rebellion. Long live Animal Farm! Long live Comrade Napoleon! Napoleon is
-always right.' Those were his very last words, comrades."
-
-Here Squealer's demeanour suddenly changed. He fell silent for a moment,
-and his little eyes darted suspicious glances from side to side before he
-proceeded.
-
-It had come to his knowledge, he said, that a foolish and wicked rumour
-had been circulated at the time of Boxer's removal. Some of the animals
-had noticed that the van which took Boxer away was marked "Horse
-Slaughterer," and had actually jumped to the conclusion that Boxer was
-being sent to the knacker's. It was almost unbelievable, said Squealer,
-that any animal could be so stupid. Surely, he cried indignantly, whisking
-his tail and skipping from side to side, surely they knew their beloved
-Leader, Comrade Napoleon, better than that? But the explanation was really
-very simple. The van had previously been the property of the knacker, and
-had been bought by the veterinary surgeon, who had not yet painted the old
-name out. That was how the mistake had arisen.
-
-The animals were enormously relieved to hear this. And when Squealer went
-on to give further graphic details of Boxer's death-bed, the admirable
-care he had received, and the expensive medicines for which Napoleon had
-paid without a thought as to the cost, their last doubts disappeared and
-the sorrow that they felt for their comrade's death was tempered by the
-thought that at least he had died happy.
-
-Napoleon himself appeared at the meeting on the following Sunday morning
-and pronounced a short oration in Boxer's honour. It had not been
-possible, he said, to bring back their lamented comrade's remains for
-interment on the farm, but he had ordered a large wreath to be made from
-the laurels in the farmhouse garden and sent down to be placed on Boxer's
-grave. And in a few days' time the pigs intended to hold a memorial
-banquet in Boxer's honour. Napoleon ended his speech with a reminder of
-Boxer's two favourite maxims, "I will work harder" and "Comrade Napoleon
-is always right"--maxims, he said, which every animal would do well to
-adopt as his own.
-
-On the day appointed for the banquet, a grocer's van drove up from
-Willingdon and delivered a large wooden crate at the farmhouse. That night
-there was the sound of uproarious singing, which was followed by what
-sounded like a violent quarrel and ended at about eleven o'clock with a
-tremendous crash of glass. No one stirred in the farmhouse before noon on
-the following day, and the word went round that from somewhere or other
-the pigs had acquired the money to buy themselves another case of whisky.
-
-
-
-
-    Chapter X
-
-
-
-Years passed. The seasons came and went, the short animal lives fled by.
-A time came when there was no one who remembered the old days before the
-Rebellion, except Clover, Benjamin, Moses the raven, and a number of the
-pigs.
-
-Muriel was dead; Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher were dead. Jones too was
-dead--he had died in an inebriates' home in another part of the country.
-Snowball was forgotten. Boxer was forgotten, except by the few who had
-known him. Clover was an old stout mare now, stiff in the joints and with
-a tendency to rheumy eyes. She was two years past the retiring age, but in
-fact no animal had ever actually retired. The talk of setting aside a
-corner of the pasture for superannuated animals had long since been
-dropped. Napoleon was now a mature boar of twenty-four stone. Squealer was
-so fat that he could with difficulty see out of his eyes. Only old
-Benjamin was much the same as ever, except for being a little greyer about
-the muzzle, and, since Boxer's death, more morose and taciturn than ever.
-
-There were many more creatures on the farm now, though the increase was
-not so great as had been expected in earlier years. Many animals had been
-born to whom the Rebellion was only a dim tradition, passed on by word of
-mouth, and others had been bought who had never heard mention of such a
-thing before their arrival. The farm possessed three horses now besides
-Clover. They were fine upstanding beasts, willing workers and good
-comrades, but very stupid. None of them proved able to learn the alphabet
-beyond the letter B. They accepted everything that they were told about
-the Rebellion and the principles of Animalism, especially from Clover, for
-whom they had an almost filial respect; but it was doubtful whether they
-understood very much of it.
-
-The farm was more prosperous now, and better organised: it had even been
-enlarged by two fields which had been bought from Mr. Pilkington. The
-windmill had been successfully completed at last, and the farm possessed a
-threshing machine and a hay elevator of its own, and various new buildings
-had been added to it. Whymper had bought himself a dogcart. The windmill,
-however, had not after all been used for generating electrical power. It
-was used for milling corn, and brought in a handsome money profit. The
-animals were hard at work building yet another windmill; when that one was
-finished, so it was said, the dynamos would be installed. But the luxuries
-of which Snowball had once taught the animals to dream, the stalls with
-electric light and hot and cold water, and the three-day week, were no
-longer talked about. Napoleon had denounced such ideas as contrary to the
-spirit of Animalism. The truest happiness, he said, lay in working hard
-and living frugally.
-
-Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the
-animals themselves any richer-except, of course, for the pigs and the
-dogs. Perhaps this was partly because there were so many pigs and so many
-dogs. It was not that these creatures did not work, after their fashion.
-There was, as Squealer was never tired of explaining, endless work in the
-supervision and organisation of the farm. Much of this work was of a kind
-that the other animals were too ignorant to understand. For example,
-Squealer told them that the pigs had to expend enormous labours every day
-upon mysterious things called "files," "reports," "minutes," and
-"memoranda". These were large sheets of paper which had to be closely
-covered with writing, and as soon as they were so covered, they were burnt
-in the furnace. This was of the highest importance for the welfare of the
-farm, Squealer said. But still, neither pigs nor dogs produced any food by
-their own labour; and there were very many of them, and their appetites
-were always good.
-
-As for the others, their life, so far as they knew, was as it had always
-been. They were generally hungry, they slept on straw, they drank from the
-pool, they laboured in the fields; in winter they were troubled by the
-cold, and in summer by the flies. Sometimes the older ones among them
-racked their dim memories and tried to determine whether in the early
-days of the Rebellion, when Jones's expulsion was still recent, things had
-been better or worse than now. They could not remember. There was nothing
-with which they could compare their present lives: they had nothing to go
-upon except Squealer's lists of figures, which invariably demonstrated
-that everything was getting better and better. The animals found the
-problem insoluble; in any case, they had little time for speculating on
-such things now. Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of
-his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be
-much better or much worse--hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so
-he said, the unalterable law of life.
-
-And yet the animals never gave up hope. More, they never lost, even for an
-instant, their sense of honour and privilege in being members of Animal
-Farm. They were still the only farm in the whole county--in all
-England!--owned and operated by animals. Not one of them, not even the
-youngest, not even the newcomers who had been brought from farms ten or
-twenty miles away, ever ceased to marvel at that. And when they heard the
-gun booming and saw the green flag fluttering at the masthead, their
-hearts swelled with imperishable pride, and the talk turned always towards
-the old heroic days, the expulsion of Jones, the writing of the Seven
-Commandments, the great battles in which the human invaders had been
-defeated. None of the old dreams had been abandoned. The Republic of the
-Animals which Major had foretold, when the green fields of England should
-be untrodden by human feet, was still believed in. Some day it was coming:
-it might not be soon, it might not be with in the lifetime of any animal
-now living, but still it was coming. Even the tune of 'Beasts of England'
-was perhaps hummed secretly here and there: at any rate, it was a fact
-that every animal on the farm knew it, though no one would have dared to
-sing it aloud. It might be that their lives were hard and that not all of
-their hopes had been fulfilled; but they were conscious that they were not
-as other animals. If they went hungry, it was not from feeding tyrannical
-human beings; if they worked hard, at least they worked for themselves.
-No creature among them went upon two legs. No creature called any other
-creature "Master." All animals were equal.
-
-One day in early summer Squealer ordered the sheep to follow him, and led
-them out to a piece of waste ground at the other end of the farm, which
-had become overgrown with birch saplings. The sheep spent the whole day
-there browsing at the leaves under Squealer's supervision. In the evening
-he returned to the farmhouse himself, but, as it was warm weather, told
-the sheep to stay where they were. It ended by their remaining there for a
-whole week, during which time the other animals saw nothing of them.
-Squealer was with them for the greater part of every day. He was, he said,
-teaching them to sing a new song, for which privacy was needed.
-
-It was just after the sheep had returned, on a pleasant evening when the
-animals had finished work and were making their way back to the farm
-buildings, that the terrified neighing of a horse sounded from the yard.
-Startled, the animals stopped in their tracks. It was Clover's voice. She
-neighed again, and all the animals broke into a gallop and rushed into the
-yard. Then they saw what Clover had seen.
-
-It was a pig walking on his hind legs.
-
-Yes, it was Squealer. A little awkwardly, as though not quite used to
-supporting his considerable bulk in that position, but with perfect
-balance, he was strolling across the yard. And a moment later, out from
-the door of the farmhouse came a long file of pigs, all walking on their
-hind legs. Some did it better than others, one or two were even a trifle
-unsteady and looked as though they would have liked the support of a
-stick, but every one of them made his way right round the yard
-successfully. And finally there was a tremendous baying of dogs and a
-shrill crowing from the black cockerel, and out came Napoleon himself,
-majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side, and with
-his dogs gambolling round him.
-
-He carried a whip in his trotter.
-
-There was a deadly silence. Amazed, terrified, huddling together, the
-animals watched the long line of pigs march slowly round the yard. It was
-as though the world had turned upside-down. Then there came a moment when
-the first shock had worn off and when, in spite of everything-in spite of
-their terror of the dogs, and of the habit, developed through long years,
-of never complaining, never criticising, no matter what happened--they
-might have uttered some word of protest. But just at that moment, as
-though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of--
-
-"Four legs good, two legs BETTER! Four legs good, two legs BETTER! Four
-legs good, two legs BETTER!"
-
-It went on for five minutes without stopping. And by the time the sheep
-had quieted down, the chance to utter any protest had passed, for the pigs
-had marched back into the farmhouse.
-
-Benjamin felt a nose nuzzling at his shoulder. He looked round. It was
-Clover. Her old eyes looked dimmer than ever. Without saying anything, she
-tugged gently at his mane and led him round to the end of the big barn,
-where the Seven Commandments were written. For a minute or two they stood
-gazing at the tatted wall with its white lettering.
-
-"My sight is failing," she said finally. "Even when I was young I could
-not have read what was written there. But it appears to me that that wall
-looks different. Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be,
-Benjamin?"
-
-For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what
-was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single
-Commandment. It ran:
-
-ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
-BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
-
-After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were
-supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters. It
-did not seem strange to learn that the pigs had bought themselves a
-wireless set, were arranging to install a telephone, and had taken out
-subscriptions to 'John Bull', 'Tit-Bits', and the 'Daily Mirror'. It did
-not seem strange when Napoleon was seen strolling in the farmhouse garden
-with a pipe in his mouth--no, not even when the pigs took Mr. Jones's
-clothes out of the wardrobes and put them on, Napoleon himself appearing
-in a black coat, ratcatcher breeches, and leather leggings, while his
-favourite sow appeared in the watered silk dress which Mrs. Jones had been
-used to wearing on Sundays.
-
-A week later, in the afternoon, a number of dog-carts drove up to the farm.
-A deputation of neighbouring farmers had been invited to make a tour of
-inspection. They were shown all over the farm, and expressed great
-admiration for everything they saw, especially the windmill. The animals
-were weeding the turnip field. They worked diligently hardly raising their
-faces from the ground, and not knowing whether to be more frightened of
-the pigs or of the human visitors.
-
-That evening loud laughter and bursts of singing came from the farmhouse.
-And suddenly, at the sound of the mingled voices, the animals were
-stricken with curiosity. What could be happening in there, now that for
-the first time animals and human beings were meeting on terms of equality?
-With one accord they began to creep as quietly as possible into the
-farmhouse garden.
-
-At the gate they paused, half frightened to go on but Clover led the way
-in. They tiptoed up to the house, and such animals as were tall enough
-peered in at the dining-room window. There, round the long table, sat half
-a dozen farmers and half a dozen of the more eminent pigs, Napoleon
-himself occupying the seat of honour at the head of the table. The pigs
-appeared completely at ease in their chairs. The company had been enjoying
-a game of cards but had broken off for the moment, evidently in order to
-drink a toast. A large jug was circulating, and the mugs were being
-refilled with beer. No one noticed the wondering faces of the animals that
-gazed in at the window.
-
-Mr. Pilkington, of Foxwood, had stood up, his mug in his hand. In a
-moment, he said, he would ask the present company to drink a toast. But
-before doing so, there were a few words that he felt it incumbent upon him
-to say.
-
-It was a source of great satisfaction to him, he said--and, he was sure,
-to all others present--to feel that a long period of mistrust and
-misunderstanding had now come to an end. There had been a time--not that
-he, or any of the present company, had shared such sentiments--but there
-had been a time when the respected proprietors of Animal Farm had been
-regarded, he would not say with hostility, but perhaps with a certain
-measure of misgiving, by their human neighbours. Unfortunate incidents had
-occurred, mistaken ideas had been current. It had been felt that the
-existence of a farm owned and operated by pigs was somehow abnormal and
-was liable to have an unsettling effect in the neighbourhood. Too many
-farmers had assumed, without due enquiry, that on such a farm a spirit of
-licence and indiscipline would prevail. They had been nervous about the
-effects upon their own animals, or even upon their human employees. But
-all such doubts were now dispelled. Today he and his friends had visited
-Animal Farm and inspected every inch of it with their own eyes, and what
-did they find? Not only the most up-to-date methods, but a discipline and
-an orderliness which should be an example to all farmers everywhere. He
-believed that he was right in saying that the lower animals on Animal Farm
-did more work and received less food than any animals in the county.
-Indeed, he and his fellow-visitors today had observed many features which
-they intended to introduce on their own farms immediately.
-
-He would end his remarks, he said, by emphasising once again the friendly
-feelings that subsisted, and ought to subsist, between Animal Farm and its
-neighbours. Between pigs and human beings there was not, and there need
-not be, any clash of interests whatever. Their struggles and their
-difficulties were one. Was not the labour problem the same everywhere?
-Here it became apparent that Mr. Pilkington was about to spring some
-carefully prepared witticism on the company, but for a moment he was too
-overcome by amusement to be able to utter it. After much choking, during
-which his various chins turned purple, he managed to get it out: "If you
-have your lower animals to contend with," he said, "we have our lower
-classes!" This BON MOT set the table in a roar; and Mr. Pilkington once
-again congratulated the pigs on the low rations, the long working hours,
-and the general absence of pampering which he had observed on Animal Farm.
-
-And now, he said finally, he would ask the company to rise to their feet
-and make certain that their glasses were full. "Gentlemen," concluded
-Mr. Pilkington, "gentlemen, I give you a toast: To the prosperity of
-Animal Farm!"
-
-There was enthusiastic cheering and stamping of feet. Napoleon was so
-gratified that he left his place and came round the table to clink his
-mug against Mr. Pilkington's before emptying it. When the cheering had
-died down, Napoleon, who had remained on his feet, intimated that he too
-had a few words to say.
-
-Like all of Napoleon's speeches, it was short and to the point. He too,
-he said, was happy that the period of misunderstanding was at an end. For
-a long time there had been rumours--circulated, he had reason to think,
-by some malignant enemy--that there was something subversive and even
-revolutionary in the outlook of himself and his colleagues. They had been
-credited with attempting to stir up rebellion among the animals on
-neighbouring farms. Nothing could be further from the truth! Their sole
-wish, now and in the past, was to live at peace and in normal business
-relations with their neighbours. This farm which he had the honour to
-control, he added, was a co-operative enterprise. The title-deeds, which
-were in his own possession, were owned by the pigs jointly.
-
-He did not believe, he said, that any of the old suspicions still
-lingered, but certain changes had been made recently in the routine of the
-farm which should have the effect of promoting confidence still further.
-Hitherto the animals on the farm had had a rather foolish custom of
-addressing one another as "Comrade." This was to be suppressed. There had
-also been a very strange custom, whose origin was unknown, of marching
-every Sunday morning past a boar's skull which was nailed to a post in the
-garden. This, too, would be suppressed, and the skull had already been
-buried. His visitors might have observed, too, the green flag which flew
-from the masthead. If so, they would perhaps have noted that the white
-hoof and horn with which it had previously been marked had now been
-removed. It would be a plain green flag from now onwards.
-
-He had only one criticism, he said, to make of Mr. Pilkington's excellent
-and neighbourly speech. Mr. Pilkington had referred throughout to
-"Animal Farm." He could not of course know--for he, Napoleon, was only
-now for the first time announcing it--that the name "Animal Farm"
-had been abolished. Henceforward the farm was to be known as "The Manor
-Farm"--which, he believed, was its correct and original name.
-
-"Gentlemen," concluded Napoleon, "I will give you the same toast as
-before, but in a different form. Fill your glasses to the brim. Gentlemen,
-here is my toast: To the prosperity of The Manor Farm!"
-
-There was the same hearty cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to
-the dregs. But as the animals outside gazed at the scene, it seemed to
-them that some strange thing was happening. What was it that had altered
-in the faces of the pigs? Clover's old dim eyes flitted from one face to
-another. Some of them had five chins, some had four, some had three. But
-what was it that seemed to be melting and changing? Then, the applause
-having come to an end, the company took up their cards and continued the
-game that had been interrupted, and the animals crept silently away.
-
-But they had not gone twenty yards when they stopped short. An uproar of
-voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through
-the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were
-shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious
-denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and
-Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously.
-
-Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question,
-now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside
-looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again;
-but already it was impossible to say which was which.
+Following text is added for stability: