THis is Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Chapter 2.
Three nights later old Major died peacefully
in his sleep.
His body was buried at the foot of the orchard.
This was early in March.
During the next three months there was much
secret activity.
Major's speech had given to the more intelligent
animals on the farm a completely new outlook
on life.
They did not know when the Rebellion predicted
by Major would take place, they had no reason
for thinking that it would be within their
own lifetime, but they saw clearly that it
was their duty to prepare for it.
The work of teaching and organising the others
fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally
recognised as being the cleverest of the animals.
Pre-eminent among the pigs were two young
boars named Snowball and Napoleon, whom Mr.
Jones was breeding up for sale.
Napoleon was a large, rather fierce-looking
Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the
farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation
for getting his own way.
Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon,
quicker in speech and more inventive, but
was not considered to have the same depth
of character.
All the other male pigs on the farm were porkers.
The best known among them was a small fat
pig named Squealer, with very round cheeks,
twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill
voice.
He was a brilliant talker, and when he was
arguing some difficult point he had a way
of skipping from side to side and whisking
his tail which was somehow very persuasive.
The others said of Squealer that he could
turn black into white.
These three had elaborated old Major's teachings
into a complete system of thought, to which
they gave the name of Animalism.
Several nights a week, after Mr. Jones was
asleep, they held secret meetings in the barn
and expounded the principles of Animalism
to the others.
At the beginning they met with much stupidity
and apathy.
Some of the animals talked of the duty of
loyalty to Mr. Jones, whom they referred to
as "Master," or made elementary remarks such
as "Mr. Jones feeds us.
If he were gone, we should starve to death."
Others asked such questions as "Why should
we care what happens after we are dead?" or
"If this Rebellion is to happen anyway, what
difference does it make whether we work for
it or not?", and the pigs had great difficulty
in making them see that this was contrary
to the spirit of Animalism.
The stupidest questions of all were asked
by Mollie, the white mare.
The very first question she asked Snowball
was: "Will there still be sugar after the
Rebellion?"
"No," said Snowball firmly.
"We have no means of making sugar on this
farm.
Besides, you do not need sugar.
You will have all the oats and hay you want."
"And shall I still be allowed to wear ribbons
in my mane?" asked Mollie.
"Comrade," said Snowball, "those ribbons that
you are so devoted to are the badge of slavery.
Can you not understand that liberty is worth
more than ribbons?"
Mollie agreed, but she did not sound very
convinced.
The pigs had an even harder struggle to counteract
the lies put about by Moses, the tame raven.
Moses, who was Mr. Jones's especial pet, was
a spy and a tale-bearer, but he was also a
clever talker.
He claimed to know of the existence of a mysterious
country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which
all animals went when they died.
It was situated somewhere up in the sky, a
little distance beyond the clouds, Moses said.
In Sugarcandy Mountain it was Sunday seven
days a week, clover was in season all the
year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake
grew on the hedges.
The animals hated Moses because he told tales
and did no work, but some of them believed
in Sugarcandy Mountain, and the pigs had to
argue very hard to persuade them that there
was no such place.
Their most faithful disciples were the two
cart-horses, Boxer and Clover.
These two had great difficulty in thinking
anything out for themselves, but having once
accepted the pigs as their teachers, they
absorbed everything that they were told, and
passed it on to the other animals by simple
arguments.
They were unfailing in their attendance at
the secret meetings in the barn, and led the
singing of 'Beasts of England', with which
the meetings always ended.
Now, as it turned out, the Rebellion was achieved
much earlier and more easily than anyone had
expected.
In past years Mr. Jones, although a hard master,
had been a capable farmer, but of late he
had fallen on evil days.
He had become much disheartened after losing
money in a lawsuit, and had taken to drinking
more than was good for him.
For whole days at a time he would lounge in
his Windsor chair in the kitchen, reading
the newspapers, drinking, and occasionally
feeding Moses on crusts of bread soaked in
beer.
His men were idle and dishonest, the fields
were full of weeds, the buildings wanted roofing,
the hedges were neglected, and the animals
were underfed.
June came and the hay was almost ready for
cutting.
On Midsummer's Eve, which was a Saturday,
Mr. Jones went into Willingdon and got so
drunk at the Red Lion that he did not come
back till midday on Sunday.
The men had milked the cows in the early morning
and then had gone out rabbiting, without bothering
to feed the animals.
When Mr. Jones got back he immediately went
to sleep on the drawing-room sofa with the
News of the World over his face, so that when
evening came, the animals were still unfed.
At last they could stand it no longer.
One of the cows broke in the door of the store-shed
with her horn and all the animals began to
help themselves from the bins.
It was just then that Mr. Jones woke up.
The next moment he and his four men were in
the store-shed with whips in their hands,
lashing out in all directions.
This was more than the hungry animals could
bear.
With one accord, though nothing of the kind
had been planned beforehand, they flung themselves
upon their tormentors.
Jones and his men suddenly found themselves
being butted and kicked from all sides.
The situation was quite out of their control.
They had never seen animals behave like this
before, and this sudden uprising of creatures
whom they were used to thrashing and maltreating
just as they chose, frightened them almost
out of their wits.
After only a moment or two they gave up trying
to defend themselves and took to their heels.
A minute later all five of them were in full
flight down the cart-track that led to the
main road, with the animals pursuing them
in triumph.
Mrs. Jones looked out of the bedroom window,
saw what was happening, hurriedly flung a
few possessions into a carpet bag, and slipped
out of the farm by another way.
Moses sprang off his perch and flapped after
her, croaking loudly.
Meanwhile the animals had chased Jones and
his men out on to the road and slammed the
five-barred gate behind them.
And so, almost before they knew what was happening,
the Rebellion had been successfully carried
through: Jones was expelled, and the Manor
Farm was theirs.
For the first few minutes the animals could
hardly believe in their good fortune.
Their first act was to gallop in a body right
round the boundaries of the farm, as though
to make quite sure that no human being was
hiding anywhere upon it; then they raced back
to the farm buildings to wipe out the last
traces of Jones's hated reign.
The harness-room at the end of the stables
was broken open; the bits, the nose-rings,
the dog-chains, the cruel knives with which
Mr. Jones had been used to castrate the pigs
and lambs, were all flung down the well.
The reins, the halters, the blinkers, the
degrading nosebags, were thrown on to the
rubbish fire which was burning in the yard.
So were the whips.
All the animals capered with joy when they
saw the whips going up in flames.
Snowball also threw on to the fire the ribbons
with which the horses' manes and tails had
usually been decorated on market days.
"Ribbons," he said, "should be considered
as clothes, which are the mark of a human
being.
All animals should go naked."
When Boxer heard this he fetched the small
straw hat which he wore in summer to keep
the flies out of his ears, and flung it on
to the fire with the rest.
In a very little while the animals had destroyed
everything that reminded them of Mr. Jones.
Napoleon then led them back to the store-shed
and served out a double ration of corn to
everybody, with two biscuits for each dog.
Then they sang 'Beasts of England' from end
to end seven times running, and after that
they settled down for the night and slept
as they had never slept before.
But they woke at dawn as usual, and suddenly
remembering the glorious thing that had happened,
they all raced out into the pasture together.
A little way down the pasture there was a
knoll that commanded a view of most of the
farm.
The animals rushed to the top of it and gazed
round them in the clear morning light.
Yes, it was theirs--everything that they could
see was theirs!
In the ecstasy of that thought they gambolled
round and round, they hurled themselves into
the air in great leaps of excitement.
They rolled in the dew, they cropped mouthfuls
of the sweet summer grass, they kicked up
clods of the black earth and snuffed its rich
scent.
Then they made a tour of inspection of the
whole farm and surveyed with speechless admiration
the ploughland, the hayfield, the orchard,
the pool, the spinney.
It was as though they had never seen these
things before, and even now they could hardly
believe that it was all their own.
Then they filed back to the farm buildings
and halted in silence outside the door of
the farmhouse.
That was theirs too, but they were frightened
to go inside.
After a moment, however, Snowball and Napoleon
butted the door open with their shoulders
and the animals entered in single file, walking
with the utmost care for fear of disturbing
anything.
They tiptoed from room to room, afraid to
speak above a whisper and gazing with a kind
of awe at the unbelievable luxury, at the
beds with their feather mattresses, the looking-glasses,
the horsehair sofa, the Brussels carpet, the
lithograph of Queen Victoria over the drawing-room
mantelpiece.
They were just coming down the stairs when
Mollie was discovered to be missing.
Going back, the others found that she had
remained behind in the best bedroom.
She had taken a piece of blue ribbon from
Mrs. Jones's dressing-table, and was holding
it against her shoulder and admiring herself
in the glass in a very foolish manner.
The others reproached her sharply, and they
went outside.
Some hams hanging in the kitchen were taken
out for burial, and the barrel of beer in
the scullery was stove in with a kick from
Boxer's hoof, otherwise nothing in the house
was touched.
A unanimous resolution was passed on the spot
that the farmhouse should be preserved as
a museum.
All were agreed that no animal must ever live
there.
The animals had their breakfast, and then
Snowball and Napoleon called them together
again.
"Comrades," said Snowball, "it is half-past
six and we have a long day before us.
Today we begin the hay harvest.
But there is another matter that must be attended
to first."
The pigs now revealed that during the past
three months they had taught themselves to
read and write from an old spelling book which
had belonged to Mr. Jones's children and which
had been thrown on the rubbish heap.
Napoleon sent for pots of black and white
paint and led the way down to the five-barred
gate that gave on to the main road.
Then Snowball (for it was Snowball who was
best at writing) took a brush between the
two knuckles of his trotter, painted out MANOR
FARM from the top bar of the gate and in its
place painted ANIMAL FARM.
This was to be the name of the farm from now
onwards.
After this they went back to the farm buildings,
where Snowball and Napoleon sent for a ladder
which they caused to be set against the end
wall of the big barn.
They explained that by their studies of the
past three months the pigs had succeeded in
reducing the principles of Animalism to Seven
Commandments.
These Seven Commandments would now be inscribed
on the wall; they would form an unalterable
law by which all the animals on Animal Farm
must live for ever after.
With some difficulty (for it is not easy for
a pig to balance himself on a ladder) Snowball
climbed up and set to work, with Squealer
a few rungs below him holding the paint-pot.
The Commandments were written on the tarred
wall in great white letters that could be
read thirty yards away.
They ran thus:
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
1.
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings,
is a friend.
3.
No animal shall wear clothes.
4.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
6.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
7.
All animals are equal.
It was very neatly written, and except that
"friend" was written "freind" and one of the
"S's" was the wrong way round, the spelling
was correct all the way through.
Snowball read it aloud for the benefit of
the others.
All the animals nodded in complete agreement,
and the cleverer ones at once began to learn
the Commandments by heart.
"Now, comrades," cried Snowball, throwing
down the paint-brush, "to the hayfield!
Let us make it a point of honour to get in
the harvest more quickly than Jones and his
men could do."
But at this moment the three cows, who had
seemed uneasy for some time past, set up a
loud lowing.
They had not been milked for twenty-four hours,
and their udders were almost bursting.
After a little thought, the pigs sent for
buckets and milked the cows fairly successfully,
their trotters being well adapted to this
task.
Soon there were five buckets of frothing creamy
milk at which many of the animals looked with
considerable interest.
"What is going to happen to all that milk?"
said someone.
"Jones used sometimes to mix some of it in
our mash," said one of the hens.
"Never mind the milk, comrades!" cried Napoleon,
placing himself in front of the buckets.
"That will be attended to.
The harvest is more important.
Comrade Snowball will lead the way.
I shall follow in a few minutes.
Forward, comrades!
The hay is waiting."
So the animals trooped down to the hayfield
to begin the harvest, and when they came back
in the evening it was noticed that the milk
had disappeared.
