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- Animal Farm
- A Fairy Story
- By George Orwell
- 1946
- AAARGH Internet Edition
- 2004
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- MR. JONES, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night,
- but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes. With the ring of light
- from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked
- off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel
- in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already
- snoring.
- As soon as the light in the bedroom went out there was a stirring and a
- fluttering all through the farm buildings. Word had gone round during the day
- that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had had a strange dream on the
- previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals. It had been
- agreed that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was
- safely out of the way. Old Major (so he was always called, though the name
- under which he had been exhibited was Willingdon Beauty ) was so highly
- regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour's sleep in
- order to hear what he had to say.
- At one end of the big barn, on a sort of raised platform, Major was already
- ensconced on his bed of straw, under a lantern which hung from a beam. He
- was twelve years old and had lately grown rather stout, but he was still a
- majestic-looking pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact
- that his tushes had never been cut. Before long the other animals began to
- arrive and make themselves comfortable after their different fashions. First
- came the three dogs, Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher , and then the pigs, who
- settled down in the straw immediately in front of the platform. The hens
- perched themselves on the window-sills, the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters,
- the sheep and cows lay down behind the pigs and began to chew the cud. The
- two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover, came in together, walking very slowly and
- setting down their vast hairy hoofs with great care lest there should be some
- small animal concealed in the straw. Clover was a stout motherly mare
- approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her
- fourth foal. Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as
- strong as any two ordinary horses put together. A white stripe down his nose
- gave him a somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact he was not of first-rate
- intelligence, but he was universally respected for his steadiness of character
- and tremendous powers of work. After the horses came Muriel, the white goat,
- and Benjamin, the donkey. Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm, and
- the worst tempered. He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to
- make some cynical remark—for instance, he would say that God had given him
- a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no
- flies. Alone among the animals on the farm he never laughed. If asked why, he
- would say that he saw nothing to laugh at. Nevertheless, without openly
- admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 fr ee. 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- "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 ol d 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 dog s 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. A1most 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 m y 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- Shall be trod by beasts alone.
- Rings shall vanish from our noses,
- And the harness from our back,
- Bit and spur shall rust forever,
- Cruel whips no more shall crack.
- Riches more than mind can picture,
- Wheat and barley, oats and hay,
- Clover, beans, and mangel-wurzels
- Shall be ours upon that day.
- Bright will shine the fields of England,
- Purer shall its waters be,
- Sweeter yet shall blow its breezes
- On the day that sets us free.
- For that day we all must labour,
- Though we die before it break;
- Cows and horses, geese and turkeys,
- All must toil for freedom's sake.
- Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
- Beasts of every land and clime,
- Hearken well and spread my tidings
- Of the golden future time.
- The singing of this song threw the animals into the wildest excitement.
- Almost before Major had reached the end, they had begun singing it for
- themselves. Even the stupidest of them had already picked up the tune and a
- few of the words, and as for the clever ones, such as the pigs and dogs, they
- had the entire song by heart within a few minutes. And then, after a few
- preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into Beasts of England in
- tremendous unison. The cows lowed it, the dogs whined it, the sheep bleated
- it, the horses whinnied it, the ducks quacked it. They were so delighted with
- the song that they sang it right through five times in succession, and might
- have continued singing it all night if they had not been interrupted.
- Unfortunately, the uproar awoke Mr. Jones, who sprang out of bed, making
- sure that there was a fox in the yard. He seized the gun which always stood in a
- corner of his bedroom, and let fly a charge of number 6 shot into the darkness.
- The pellets buried themselves in the wall of the barn and the meeting broke up
- hurriedly. Everyone fled to his own sleeping-place. The birds jumped on to
- their perches, the animals settled down in the straw, and the whole farm was
- asleep in a moment.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- II
- THREE nights later old Major died peacefully in his sleep. His body was
- buried at the foot of the orchard.
- This was early in March. During the next three months there was much
- secret activity. Major's speech had given to the more intelligent animals on the
- farm a completely new outlook on life. They did not know when the Rebellion
- predicted by Major would take place, they had no reason for thinking that it
- would be within their own lifetime, but they saw clearly that it was their duty
- to prepare for it. The work of teaching and organising the others fell naturally
- upon the pigs, who were generally recognised as being the cleverest of the
- animals. Pre-eminent among the pigs were two young boars named Snowball
- and Napoleon, whom Mr. Jones was breeding up for sale. Napoleon was a
- large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not
- much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way. Snowball was a
- more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but
- was not considered to have the same depth of character. All the other male
- pigs on the farm were porke rs. The best known among them was a small fat
- pig named Squealer, with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble
- movements, and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker, and when he was
- arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and
- whisking his tail which was somehow very persuasive. The others said of
- Squealer that he could turn black into white.
- These three had elaborated old Major's teachings into a complete system of
- thought, to which they gave the name of Animalism. Several nights a week,
- after Mr. Jones was asleep, they held secret meetings in the barn and
- expounded the principles of Animalism to the others. At the beginning they
- met with much stupidity and apathy. Some of the animals talked of the duty of
- loyalty to Mr. Jones, whom they referred to as "Master," or made elementary
- remarks such as "Mr. Jones feeds us. If he were gone, we sho uld 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."
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- "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 unf ed. 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 pig s 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,
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 matt resses, the lookingglasses,
- 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 woul d 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- III
- HOW they toiled and sweated to get the hay in! But their efforts were
- rewarded, for the harvest was an even bigger success than they had hoped.
- Sometimes the work was hard; the implements had been designed for
- human beings and not for animals, and it was a great drawback that no animal
- was able to use any tool that involved standing on his hind legs. But the pigs
- were so clever that they could think of a way round every difficulty. As for the
- horses, they knew every inch of the field, and in fact understood the business
- of mowing and raking far better than Jones and his men had ever done. The
- pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervi sed the others. With their
- superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership.
- Boxer and Clover would harness themselves to the cutter or the horse-rake (no
- bits or reins were needed in these days, of course) and tramp steadily round
- and round the field with a pig walking behind and calling out "Gee up,
- comrade!" or "Whoa back, comrade!" as the case might be. And every animal
- down to the humblest worked at turning the hay and gathering it. Even the
- ducks and hens toiled to and fro all day in the sun, carrying tiny wisps of hay in
- their beaks. In the end they finished the harvest in two days' less time than it
- had usually taken Jones and his men. Moreover, it was the biggest harvest that
- the farm had ever seen. There was no wastage whatever; the hens and ducks
- with their sharp eyes had gathered up the very last stalk. And not an animal on
- the farm had stolen so much as a mouthful.
- All through that summer the work of the farm went like clockwork. The
- animals were happy as they had never conceived it possible to be. Every
- mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their
- own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them
- by a grudging master. With the worthless parasitical human beings gone, there
- was more for everyone to eat. There was more leisure too, inexperienced
- though the animals were. They met with many difficulties—for ins tance, 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 shou lders. 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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. A nd 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 sl ow 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 harnessroom
- 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 8, morning. The flag was green, Snowball explained, to represent the
- green fields of England, while the hoof and horn si gnified 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 talk ing 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 wh ole 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 th e 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."
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 f ull 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- IV
- BY THE late summer the news of what had happened on Animal Farm had
- spread across half the county. Every day Snowball and Napoleon sent out
- flights of pigeons whose instructions were to mingle with the animals on
- neighbouring farms, tell them the story of the Rebellion, and teach them the
- tune of Beasts of England.
- Most of this time Mr. Jones had spent sitting in the taproom of the Red Lion
- at Willingdon, complaining to anyone who would listen of the monstrous
- injustice he had suffered in being turned out of his property by a pack of goodfor-
- 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 wh ich 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, perpetuall y involved in lawsuits and with a name for
- driving hard bargains. These two disliked each other so much that it was
- difficult for them to come to any agreement, even in defence of their own
- interests.
- Nevertheless, they were both thoroughly frightened by the rebellion on
- Animal Farm, and very anxious to prevent their own animals from learning too
- much about it. At first they pretended to laugh to scorn the idea of animals
- managing a farm for themselves. The whole thing would be over in a fortnight,
- they said. They put it about that the animals on the Manor Farm (they insisted
- on calling it the Manor Farm; they would not tolerate the name "Animal
- Farm") were perpetually fighting among themselves and w ere 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 re capture 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. S nowball 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 bol t
- 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- V
- AS WINTER drew on, Mollie became more and more troublesome. She was
- late for work every morning and excused herself by saying that she had
- overslept, and she complained of mysterious pains, although her appetite was
- excellent. On every kind of pretext she would run away from work and go to
- the drinking pool, where she would stand foolishly gazing at her own reflection
- in the water. But there were also rumours of something more serious. One day,
- as Mollie strolled blithely into the yard, flirting her long tail and chewing at a
- stalk of hay, Clover took her aside.
- "Mollie," she said, "I have something very serious to say to you. This
- morning I saw you looking over the hedge that divides Animal Farm from
- Foxwood. One of Mr. Pilkington's men was standing on the other side of the
- hedge. And—I was a long way away, but I am almost certain I saw this—he was
- talking to you and you were allowing him to stroke your nose. What does that
- mean, Mollie?"
- "He didn't! I wasn't! It isn't true!" cried Mollie, beginning to prance about
- and paw the ground.
- "Mollie! Look me in the face. Do you give me your word of honour that that
- man was not stroking your nose?"
- "It isn't true!" repeated Mollie, but she could not look Clover in the face, and
- the next moment she took to her heels and galloped away into the field.
- A thought struck Clover. Without saying anything to the others, she went to
- Mollie's stall and turned over the straw with her hoof. Hidden under the straw
- was a little pile of lump sugar and several bunches of ribbon of different
- colours.
- Three days later Mollie disappeared. For some weeks nothing was known of
- her whereabouts, then the pigeons reported that they had seen her on the
- other side of Willingdon. She was between the shafts of a smart dogcart
- painted red and black, which was standing outside a public-house. A fat redfaced
- 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,
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 brillia nt 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 whi ch 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 chaffcutter,
- 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 wi th 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 wor k. 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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, uttere d 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 fiercelooking
- 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 w ould 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 disappro val, 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? Su ppose 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 fo r 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 th e 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- VI
- ALL that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their
- work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they
- did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come
- after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings.
- Throughout the spring and summer they worked a sixty-hour week, and in
- August Napoleon announced that there would be work on Sunday afternoons
- as well. This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself
- from it would have his rations reduced by half. Even so, it was found necessary
- to leave certain tasks undone. The harvest was a little less successful than in
- the previous year, and two fields which should have been sown with roots in
- the early summer were not sown because the ploughi ng 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 d id the right idea occur to
- somebody—namely, to utilise the force of gravity. Huge boulders, far too big to
- be used as they were, were lying all over the bed of the quarry. The animals
- lashed ropes round these, and then all together, cows, horses, sheep, any
- animal that could lay hold of the rope—even the pigs sometimes joined in at
- critical moments—they dragged them with desperate slowness up the slope to
- the top of the quarry, where they were toppled over the edge, to shatter to
- pieces below. Transporting the stone when it was once broken was
- comparatively simple. The horses carried it off in cart-loads, the sheep dragged
- single blocks, even Muriel and Benjamin yoked themselves into an old
- governess-cart and did their share. By late summer a sufficient store of stone
- had accumulated, and then the building began, under the superintendence of
- the pigs.
- But it was a slow, laborious process. Frequently it took a whole day of
- exhausting effort to drag a single boulder to the top of the quarry, and
- sometimes when it was pushed over the edge it failed to break. Nothing could
- have been achieved without Boxer, whose strength seemed equal to that of all
- the rest of the animals put together. When the boulder began to slip and the
- animals cried out in despair at finding themselves dragged down the hill, it
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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-qu arters 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 do ne 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, b esides 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 la ter 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 si
- lenced 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 he rself 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 t ell 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 c ome 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 hi m 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 Snowb all. '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 o pinion 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- carried out to the day. Forward, comrades! Long live the windmill! Long live
- Animal Farm!"
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- VII
- IT WAS a bitter winter. The stormy weather was followed by sleet and snow,
- and then by a hard frost which did not break till well into February. The
- animals carried on as best they could with the rebuilding of the windmill, well
- knowing that the outside world was watching them and that the envious
- human beings would rejoice and triumph if the mill were not finished on time.
- Out of spite, the human beings pretended not to believe that it was Snowball
- who had 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 i.ne the quarry was full of snowdrifts and nothing could be done. Some
- progress was made in the dry frosty we ather that followed, but it was cruel
- work, and the animals could not feel so hopeful about it as they had felt before.
- They were always cold, and usually hungry as well. Only Boxer and Clover
- never lost heart. Squealer made excellent speeches on the joy of service and the
- dignity of labour, but the other animals found more inspiration in Boxer's
- strength and his never-failing cry of "I will work harder! "
- In January food fell short. The corn ration was drastically reduced, and it
- was announced that an extra potato ration would be issued to make up for it.
- Then it was discovered that the greater part of the potato crop had been
- frosted in the clamps, which had not been covered thickly enough. The
- potatoes had become soft and discoloured, and only a few were edible. For
- days at a time the animals had nothing to eat but chaff and mangels.
- Starvation seemed to stare them in the face.
- It was vitally necessary to conceal this fact from the outside world.
- Emboldened by the collapse of the windmill, the human beings were inventing
- fresh lies about Animal Farm. Once again it was being put about that all the
- animals were dying of famine and disease, and that they were continually
- fighting among themselves and had resorted to cannibalism and infanticide.
- Napoleon was well aware of the bad results that might follow if the real facts of
- the food situation were known, and he decided to make u se 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-s hed and allowed to catch a
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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. Thei r 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, an d 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 Snowb all 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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! "
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 ab out to
- happen.
- Napoleon stood sternly surveying his audience; then he uttered a highpitched
- 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
- t he 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 t o 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 f ro, 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 forwar d 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 y ou 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 an d all the other
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- animals had hoped and toiled. It was not for this that they had built the
- windmill and faced the bullets of Jones's gun. Such were her thoughts, though
- she lacked the words to express them.
- At last, feeling this to be in some way a substitute for the words she was
- unable to find, she began to sing Beasts of England. The other animals sitting
- round her took it up, and they sang it three times over—very tunefully, but
- slowly and mournfully, in a way they had never sung it before.
- They had just finished singing it for the third time when Squealer, attended
- by two dogs, approached them with the air of having something important to
- say. He announced that, by a special decree of Comrade Napoleon, Beasts of
- England had been abolished. From now onwards it was forbidden to sing it.
- The animals were taken aback.
- "Why?" cried Muriel.
- "It's no longer needed, comrade," said Squealer stiffly. "Beasts of England
- was the song of the Rebellion. But the Rebellion is now completed. The
- execution of the traitors this afternoon was the final act. The enemy both
- external and internal has been defeated. In Beasts of England we expressed
- our longing for a better society in days to come. But that society has now been
- established. Clearly this song has no longer any purpose."
- Frightened though they were, some of the animals might possibly have
- protested, but at this moment the sheep set up their usual bleating of "Four
- legs good, two legs bad," which went on for several minutes and put an end to
- the discussion.
- So Beasts of England was heard no more. In its place Minimus, the poet, had
- composed another song which began:
- Animal Farm, Animal Farm, Never through me shalt thou come to harm!
- and this was sung every Sunday morning after the hoisting of the flag. But
- somehow neither the words nor the tune ever seemed to the animals to come
- up to Beasts of England.
- 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 refus ed 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- of the animals' memory. But they saw now that the Commandment had not
- been violated; for clearly there was good reason for killing the traitors who had
- leagued themselves with Snowball.
- Throughout the year the animals worked even harder than they had worked
- in the previous year To rebuild the windmill, with walls twice as thick as
- before, and to finish it by the appointed date, together with the regular work of
- the farm, was a tremendous labour. There were times when it seemed to the
- animals that they worked longer hours and fed no better than they had done in
- Jones's day. On Sunday mornings Squealer, holding down a long strip of paper
- with his trotter, would read out to them lists of figures proving that the
- production of every class of foodstuff had increased by two hundred per cent,
- three hundred per cent, or five hundred per cent, as the case might be. The
- animals saw no reason to disbelieve him, especially as they could no longer
- remember very clearly what conditions had been like before the Rebellion. All
- the same, there were days when they felt that they would sooner have had less
- figures and more food.
- All orders were now issued through Squealer or one of the other pigs.
- Napoleon himself was not seen in public as often as once in a fortnight. When
- he did appear, he was attended not only by his retinue of dogs but by a black
- cockerel who marched in front of him and acted as a kind of trumpeter, letting
- out a loud "cock-a-doodle-doo" before Napoleon spoke. Even in the
- farmhouse, it was said, Napoleon inhabited separate apartments from the
- others. He took his meals alone, with two dogs to wait upon him, and always
- ate from the Crown Derby dinner service which had been in the glass cupboard
- in the drawing-room. It was also announced that the gun would be fired every
- year on Napoleon's birthday, as well as on the other two anniversaries.
- Napoleon was now never spoken of simply as "Napoleon." He was always
- referred to in formal style as "our Leader, Comrade Napoleon," and this pigs
- liked to invent for him such titles as Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind,
- Protector of the Sheep-fold, Ducklings' Friend, and the like. In his speeches,
- Squealer would talk with the tears rolling down his cheeks of Napoleon's
- wisdom the goodness of his heart, and the deep love he bore to all animals
- everywhere, even and especially the unhappy animals wh o 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 entit led Comrade Napoleon, which was
- composed by Minimus and which ran as follows:
- Friend of fatherless! Fountain of happiness! Lord of the swill-bucket!
- Oh, how my soul is on Fire when I gaze at thy Calm and commanding eye, Like
- the sun in the sky, Comrade Napoleon!
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- Thou are the giver of All that thy creatures love, Full belly twice a day,
- clean straw to roll upon; Every beast great or small Sleeps at peace in his stall,
- Thou watchest over all, Comrade Napoleon!
- Had I a sucking-pig, Ere he had grown as big Even as a pint bottle or as a
- rolling-pin, He should have learned to be Faithful and true to thee, Yes, his
- first squeak should be "Comrade Napoleon!"
- Napoleon approved of this poem and caused it to be inscribed on the wall of
- the big barn, at the opposite end from the Seven Commandments. It was
- surmounted by a portrait of Napoleon, in profile, executed by Squealer in
- white paint.
- Meanwhile, through the agency of Whymper, Napoleon was engaged in
- complicated negotiations with Frederick and Pilkington. The pile of timber
- was still unsold. Of the two, Frederick was the more anxious to get hold of it,
- but he would not offer a reasonable price. At the same time there were
- renewed rumours that Frederick and his men were plotting to attack Animal
- Farm and to destroy the windmill, the building of which had aroused furious
- jealousy in him. Snowball was known to be still skulking on Pinchf ield 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, an d 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 s tarved his cows, he had
- killed a dog by throwing it into the furnace, he amused himself in the evenings
- by making cocks fight with splinters of razor-blade tied to their spurs. The
- animals' blood boiled with rage when they heard of these things being done to
- their comrades, and sometimes they clamoured to be allowed to go out in a
- body and attack Pinchfield Farm, drive out the humans, and set the animals
- free. But Squealer counselled them to avoid rash actions and trust in Comrade
- Napoleon's strategy.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 fa vour 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 "An imal 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 masterp iece, 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 win dmill, 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 terribl e explosions and the stinging
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 knotholes.
- 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 Fox wood. 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 instruct ed to make a detour under cover of the hedge, suddenly
- appeared on the men's flank, baying ferociously, panic overtook them. They
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 ston es 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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, speeche s, 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 in doors 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 anima ls 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 paintbrush,
- 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."
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- IX
- BOXER'S split hoof was a long time in healing. They had started the
- rebuilding of the windmill the day after the victory celebrations were ended
- Boxer refused to take even a day off work, and made it a point of honour not to
- let it be seen that he was in pain. In the evenings he would admit privately to
- Clover that the hoof troubled him a great deal. Clover treated the hoof with
- poultices of herbs which she prepared by chewing them, and both she and
- Benjamin urged Boxer to work less hard. "A horse's lungs do not last for ever,"
- she said to him. But Boxer would not listen. He had, he said, only one real
- ambition left—to see the windmill well under way before he reached the age for
- retirement.
- At the beginning, when the laws of Animal Farm were first formulated, the
- retiring age had been fixed for horses and pigs at twelve, for cows at fourteen,
- for dogs at nine, for sheep at seven, and for hens and geese at five. Liberal oldage
- 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 wa s to be fenced off and turned
- into a grazing-ground for superannuated animals. For a horse, it was said, the
- pension would be five pounds of corn a day and, in winter, fifteen pounds of
- hay, with a carrot or possibly an apple on public holidays. Boxer's twelfth
- birthday was due in the late summer of the following year.
- Meanwhile life was hard. The winter was as cold as the last one had been,
- and food was even shorter. Once again all rations were reduced, except those
- of the pigs and the dogs. A too rigid equality in rations, Squealer explained,
- would have been contrary to the principles of Animalism. In any case he had
- no difficulty in proving to the other animals that they were not in reality short
- of food, whatever the appearances might be. For the time being, certainly, it
- had been found necessary to make a readjustment of rations (Squealer always
- spoke of it as a "readjustment," never as a "reduction"), but in comparison
- with the days of Jones, the improvement was enormous. Reading out the
- figures in a shrill, rapid voice, he proved to them in detail that they had more
- oats, more hay, more turnips than they had had in Jones's day, that they
- worked shorter hours, that their drinking water was of better quality, that they
- lived longer, that a larger proportion of their young ones survived infancy, and
- that they had more straw in their stalls and suffered less from fleas. The
- animals believed every word of it. Truth to tell, Jones and all he stood for had
- almost faded out of their memories. They knew that life nowadays was harsh
- and bare, that they were often hungry and often cold, and that they were
- usually working when they were not asleep. But doubtless it had been worse in
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 diffe rence, 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 o f 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 brewhouse,
- 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, w ith
- 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 occasi on 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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
- agai n 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 Benjamin7 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 sp end 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 sh outed. "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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 th rough 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, C omrade 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 droppe d. 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 bey ond the letter
- B. They accepted everything that they were told about the Rebellion and the
- principles of Animalism, especially from Clover, for whom they had an almost
- filial respect; but it was doubtful whether they understood very much of it.
- The farm was more prosperous now, and better organised: it had even been
- enlarged by two fields which had been bought from Mr. Pilkington. The
- windmill had been successfully completed at last, and the farm possessed a
- threshing machine and a hay elevator of its own, and various new buildings
- had been added to it. Whymper had bought himself a dogcart. The windmill,
- however, had not after all been used for generating electrical power. It was
- used for milling corn, and brought in a handsome money profit. T he 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.
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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, S quealer 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 alw ays 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 swelle d 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- beings; if they worked hard, at least they worked for themselves. No creatur e
- 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 fi nally 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 tho ugh 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!"
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- It went on for five minutes without stopping. And by the time the sheep had
- quieted down, the chance to utter any protest had passed, for the pigs had
- marched back into the farmhouse.
- Benjamin felt a nose nuzzling at his shoulder. He looked round. It was
- Clover. Her old eyes looked dimmer than ever. Without saying anything, she
- tugged gently at his mane and led him round to the end of the big barn, where
- the Seven Commandments were written. For a minute or two they stood
- gazing at the tatted wall with its white lettering.
- "My sight is failing," she said finally. "Even when I was young I could not
- have read what was written there. But it appears to me that that wall looks
- different. Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be,
- Benjamin?"
- For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what
- was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single
- Commandment. It ran:
- ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
- BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
- After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were
- supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters. It did not
- seem strange to learn that the pigs had bought themselves a wireless set, were
- arranging to install a telephone, and had taken out subscriptions to John Bull,
- TitBits, 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 wear on Sundays.
- A week later, in the afternoon, a number of dogcarts drove up to the farm. A
- deputation of neighbouring farmers had been invited to make a tour of
- inspection. They were shown all over the farm, and expressed great admiration
- for everything they saw, especially the windmill. The animals were weeding the
- turnip field. They worked diligently hardly raising their faces from the ground,
- and not knowing whether to be more frightened of the pigs or of the human
- visitors.
- That evening loud laughter and bursts of singing came from the farmhouse.
- And suddenly, at the sound of the mingled voices, the animals were stricken
- with curiosity. What could be happening in there, now that for the first time
- animals and human beings were meeting on terms of equality? With one
- accord they began to creep as quietly as possible into the farmhouse garden.
- At the gate they paused, half frightened to go on but Clover led the way in.
- They tiptoed up to the house, and such animals as were tall enough peered in
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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 dr ink 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, m istaken 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 insp ected 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 overcom e 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.
- George ORWELL 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 stiff 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
- George ORWELL Animal Farm
- 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.
- 1946
- George Orwell (1903-1950)
- Yggdrasil's WN Library. Version 0.9 – April 1998.
- An HTML Presentation by Siegfried.
- PDF by AAARGH - 2004.
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