venus-pit 1.0.0 → 1.1.1

package/src/lib/tarpit/corpora.js

@@ -0,0 +1,2648 @@
+let corpora = `
+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
+CHAPTER 1
+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,
+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.
+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.
+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
+CHAPTER 2
+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 lust 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.
+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
+CHAPTER 3
+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.
+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
+CHAPTER 4
+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.
+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
+CHAPTER 5
+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.
+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
+CHAPTER 6
+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!”
+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 destroyer 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.
+CHAPTER 7
+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:
+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’.
+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.
+CHAPTER 8
+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!
+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.
+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!”
+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 beingdone 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.”
+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
+CHAPTER 9
+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.
+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.
+CHAPTER 10
+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:
+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.
+ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
+BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
+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.
+`
+
+export default corpora