George Orwell's "Animal Farm"

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.

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?

Today we begin the hay harvest.

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.

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.

Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.

He announced that from now on the Sunday-morning Meetings would come to an end.

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.

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.

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.

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-

They met with many difficulties--for instance, later in the year, when they harvested the corn, they had to tread it out in the ancient style and blow away the chaff with their breath, since the farm possessed no threshing machine--but the pigs wit

In the ecstasy of that thought they gambolled round and round, they hurled themselves into the air in great leaps of excitement.

The cows lowed it, the dogs whined it, the sheep bleated it, the horses whinnied it, the ducks quacked it.

The early apples were now ripening, and the grass of the orchard was littered with windfalls.

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.

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.

Now that the small field beyond the orchard had been set aside for barley, it was rumoured that a corner of the large pasture was to be fenced off and turned into a grazing-ground for superannuated animals.

None of you has ever seen a dead donkey," and the others had to be content with this cryptic answer.

Huge boulders, far too big to be used as they were, were lying all over the bed of the quarry.

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.

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."

He would put his snout to the ground, give several deep sniffs, ad exclaim in a terrible voice, "Snowball!

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.

First came the hoisting of the flag.

By late summer a sufficient store of stone had accumulated, and then the building began, under the superintendence of the pigs.

They explained that by their studies of the past three months the pigs had succeeded in reducing the principles of Animalism to Seven Commandments.

Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.

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.

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 anima

He lay down, tucked his fore hoofs beneath him, shut his eyes, and with a hard effort managed to formulate his thoughts.

With his books held open by a stone, and with a piece of chalk gripped between the knuckles of his trotter, he would move rapidly to and fro, drawing in line after line and uttering little whimpers of excitement.

Jones was hurled into a pile of dung and his gun flew out of his hands.

The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others.

Napoleon, with Squealer and another pig named Minimus, who had a remarkable gift for composing songs and poems, sat on the front of the raised platform, with the nine young dogs forming a semicircle round them, and the other pigs sitting behind.

The young pigs were piebald, and as Napoleon was the only boar on the farm, it was possible to guess at their parentage.

Too amazed and frightened to speak, all the animals crowded through the door to watch the chase.

"And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter.

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.

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 anima

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.

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.

Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.

In a very little while the animals had destroyed everything that reminded them of Mr. Jones.

Mollie agreed, but she did not sound very convinced.

While Major was speaking four large rats had crept out of their holes and were sitting on their hindquarters, listening to him.

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."

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 o

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.

Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short.

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.

Nobody shirked--or almost nobody.

Here the work of the coming week was planned out and resolutions were put forward and debated.

First came the hoisting of the flag.

Napoleon now called upon them to confess their crimes.

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.

Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.

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.

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.

All the animals were now present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept on a perch behind the back door.

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.

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.

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.

Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers.

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.

(How these were to be procured, Snowball did not say.)

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.

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.

The sheep spent the whole day there browsing at the leaves under Squealer's supervision.

For five days the hens held out, then they capitulated and went back to their nesting boxes.

As soon as the light in the bedroom went out there was a stirring and a fluttering all through the farm buildings.

Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race!

Slowly they began to limp back towards 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.

The animals rushed to the top of it and gazed round them in the clear morning light.

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.

It happened that Jessie and Bluebell had both whelped soon after the hay harvest, giving birth between them to nine sturdy puppies.

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.

Jones and his men suddenly found themselves being butted and kicked from all sides.

The animals would still assemble on Sunday mornings to salute the flag, sing 'Beasts of England', and receive their orders for the week; but there would be no more debates.

Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.

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.

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.

Here it became apparent that Mr. Pilkington was about to spring some carefully prepared witticism on the company, but for a moment he was too overcome by amusement to be able to utter it.

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

Clover made a sort of wall round them with her great foreleg, and the ducklings nestled down inside it and promptly fell asleep.

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.

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.

Even the ducks and hens toiled to and fro all day in the sun, carrying tiny wisps of hay in their beaks.

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.

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.

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.

These three had elaborated old Major's teachings into a complete system of thought, to which they gave the name of Animalism.

The hens and ducks, for instance, saved five bushels of corn at the harvest by gathering up the stray grains.

Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short.

And what has happened to that milk which should have been breeding up sturdy calves?

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.

Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together.

All animals are equal.

But the men did not go unscathed either.

The machinery had still to be installed, and Whymper was negotiating the purchase of it, but the structure was completed.

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.

Everyone fled to his own sleeping-place.

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.

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 q

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.

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.

Now, as it turned out, the Rebellion was achieved much earlier and more easily than anyone had expected.

The best known among them was a small fat pig named Squealer, with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice.

The hens woke up squawking with terror because they had all dreamed simultaneously of hearing a gun go off in the distance.

It was pure imagination, probably traceable in the beginning to lies circulated by Snowball.

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.

His tail had grown rigid and twitched sharply from side to side, a sign in him of intense mental activity.

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.

He would put his snout to the ground, give several deep sniffs, ad exclaim in a terrible voice, "Snowball!

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.

The Meeting always ended with the singing of 'Beasts of England', and the afternoon was given up to recreation.

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.

Every Monday Mr. Whymper visited the farm as had been arranged.

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 re

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

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.

As the summer wore on, and the windmill neared completion, the rumours of an impending treacherous attack grew stronger and stronger.

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.

As the human beings approached the farm buildings, Snowball launched his first attack.

But at this moment the three cows, who had seemed uneasy for some time past, set up a loud lowing.

And then, after a few preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into 'Beasts of England' in tremendous unison.

One day, as Mollie strolled blithely into the yard, flirting her long tail and chewing at a stalk of hay, Clover took her aside.

With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership.

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.

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.

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.

On the same day it was given out that fresh documents had been discovered which revealed further details about Snowball's complicity with Jones.

There was the same hearty cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to the dregs.

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

The potatoes had become soft and discoloured, and only a few were edible.

Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.

This morning I saw you looking over the hedge that divides Animal Farm from Foxwood.

The machinery had still to be installed, and Whymper was negotiating the purchase of it, but the structure was completed.

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

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.

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.

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.

Snowball was known to be still skulking on Pinchfield Farm.

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.

In January there came bitterly hard weather.

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.

No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old.

With one accord, though nothing of the kind had been planned beforehand, they flung themselves upon their tormentors.

In the ecstasy of that thought they gambolled round and round, they hurled themselves into the air in great leaps of excitement.

In the late summer yet another of Snowball's machinations was laid bare.

As the summer wore on, and the windmill neared completion, the rumours of an impending treacherous attack grew stronger and stronger.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It was a dream of the earth as it will be when Man has vanished.

And every animal down to the humblest worked at turning the hay and gathering it.

An impromptu celebration of the victory was held immediately.

Going back, the others found that she had remained behind in the best bedroom.

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.

You cows that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year?

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 fr

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.

He formed the Egg Production Committee for the hens, the Clean Tails League for the cows, the Wild Comrades' Re-education Committee (the object of this was to tame the rats and rabbits), the Whiter Wool Movement for the sheep, and various others, b

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 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.

Moses sprang off his perch and flapped after her, croaking loudly.

The reins, the halters, the blinkers, the degrading nosebags, were thrown on to the rubbish fire which was burning in the yard.

He was Jones's secret agent all the time.

It was surmounted by a portrait of Napoleon, in profile, executed by Squealer in white paint.

Moreover, terrible stories were leaking out from Pinchfield about the cruelties that Frederick practised upon his animals.

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.

And Boxer put out his nose to sniff at the bank-notes, and the flimsy white things stirred and rustled in his breath.

"To celebrate our victory!" cried Squealer.

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 anima

Chapter II



Three nights later old Major died peacefully in his sleep.

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.

The animals decided unanimously to create a military decoration, "Animal Hero, First Class," which was conferred there and then on Snowball and Boxer.

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.

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.

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.

But suddenly the dogs sitting round Napoleon let out deep, menacing growls, and the pigs fell silent and sat down again.

And yet the song was irrepressible.

As soon as they were weaned, Napoleon took them away from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for their education.

Snowball used as his study a shed which had once been used for incubators and had a smooth wooden floor, suitable for drawing on.

Napoleon read out the orders for the week in a gruff soldierly style, and after a single singing of 'Beasts of England', all the animals dispersed.

But there is another matter that must be attended to first."

After the hoisting of the flag, the animals were required to file past the skull in a reverent manner before entering the barn.

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.

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.

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.

"A bird's wing, comrades," he said, "is an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation.

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.

After a little thought, the pigs sent for buckets and milked the cows fairly successfully, their trotters being well adapted to this task.

From now onwards it was forbidden to sing it.

Boxer and Clover always carried between them a green banner marked with the hoof and the horn and the caption, "Long live Comrade Napoleon!"

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.

His very first blow took a stable-lad from Foxwood on the skull and stretched him lifeless in the mud.

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 Que

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.

And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year, and how many of those eggs ever hatched into chickens?

Breakfast was an hour later than usual, and after breakfast there was a ceremony which was observed every week without fail.

They met with many difficulties--for instance, later in the year, when they harvested the corn, they had to tread it out in the ancient style and blow away the chaff with their breath, since the farm possessed no threshing machine--but the pigs wit

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.

And then, after a few preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into 'Beasts of England' in tremendous unison.

"And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter.

In addition, four pigeons were sent to Foxwood with a conciliatory message, which it was hoped might re-establish good relations with Pilkington.

In spite of the shock that Snowball's expulsion had given them, the animals were dismayed by this announcement.

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.

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 d

None of them proved able to learn the alphabet beyond the letter B. They accepted everything that they were told about the Rebellion and the principles of Animalism, especially from Clover, for whom they had an almost filial respect; but it was dou

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.

Most of this time Mr. Jones had spent sitting in the taproom of the Red Lion at Willingdon, complaining to anyone who would listen of the monstrous injustice he had suffered in being turned out of his property by a pack of good-for-nothing animals.

They all cowered silently in their places, seeming to know in advance that some terrible thing was about to happen.

Too amazed and frightened to speak, all the animals crowded through the door to watch the chase.

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.

The animals were stupefied.

The cows lowed it, the dogs whined it, the sheep bleated it, the horses whinnied it, the ducks quacked it.

The animals reassured him on this point immediately, and no more was said about the pigs sleeping in the farmhouse beds.

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.

Clover tried to stir her stout limbs to a gallop, and achieved a canter.

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.

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.

Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health.

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.

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.

Napoleon read out the orders for the week in a gruff soldierly style, and after a single singing of 'Beasts of England', all the animals dispersed.

The attempt to tame the wild creatures, for instance, broke down almost immediately.

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 did not know which was more shocking--the treachery of the animals who had leagued themselves with Snowball, or the cruel retribution they had just witnessed.

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.

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.

And in a few days' time the pigs intended to hold a memorial banquet in Boxer's honour.

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.

The next moment he and his four men were in the store-shed with whips in their hands, lashing out in all directions.

The animals found the problem insoluble; in any case, they had little time for speculating on such things now.

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."

Before long the other animals began to arrive and make themselves comfortable after their different fashions.

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 sur

At the beginning they met with much stupidity and apathy.

He had become much disheartened after losing money in a lawsuit, and had taken to drinking more than was good for him.

There would be no need for any of the animals to come in contact with human beings, which would clearly be most undesirable.

"Comrades," he said, "I trust that every animal here appreciates the sacrifice that Comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labour upon himself.

There was no wastage whatever; the hens and ducks with their sharp eyes had gathered up the very last stalk.

The pigeons had been told to avoid Pinchfield Farm and to alter their slogan from "Death to Frederick" to "Death to Pilkington."

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.

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.

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.

Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 fr

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.

Clover asked Benjamin to read her the Sixth Commandment, and when Benjamin, as usual, said that he refused to meddle in such matters, she fetched Muriel.

And Boxer put out his nose to sniff at the bank-notes, and the flimsy white things stirred and rustled in his breath.

The best known among them was a small fat pig named Squealer, with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice.

It has all been proved by documents which he left behind him and which we have only just discovered.

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.

He was indefatigable at this.

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.

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.

Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices.

When it was all over, the remaining animals, except for the pigs and dogs, crept away in a body.

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 o

In their spare moments the animals would walk round and round the half-finished mill, admiring the strength and perpendicularity of its walls and marvelling that they should ever have been able to build anything so imposing.

At the Meetings Snowball often won over the majority by his brilliant speeches, but Napoleon was better at canvassing support for himself in between times.

Then a sheep confessed to having urinated in the drinking pool--urged to do this, so she said, by Snowball--and two other sheep confessed to having murdered an old ram, an especially devoted follower of Napoleon, by chasing him round and round a bo

The windmill, however, had not after all been used for generating electrical power.

"Comrades," he said, "I trust that every animal here appreciates the sacrifice that Comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labour upon himself.

Some of the pigs themselves, however, were more articulate.

"You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege?

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 slaught

You would not rob us of our repose, would you, comrades?

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 wa

His eyes were glazed, his sides matted with sweat.

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.

And remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him.

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.

That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion!

That, he said, was Comrade Napoleon's cunning.

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 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.

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.

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.

One afternoon in late February a warm, rich, appetising scent, such as the animals had never smelt before, wafted itself across the yard from the little brew-house, which had been disused in Jones's time, and which stood beyond the kitchen.

They took their exercise in the garden, and were discouraged from playing with the other young animals.

Pre-eminent among the pigs were two young boars named Snowball and Napoleon, whom Mr. Jones was breeding up for sale.

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.

One afternoon in late February a warm, rich, appetising scent, such as the animals had never smelt before, wafted itself across the yard from the little brew-house, which had been disused in Jones's time, and which stood beyond the kitchen.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wistful glances were sent in the direction of Foxwood.

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 had denounced such ideas as contrary to the spirit of Animalism.

He had made an arrangement with one of the cockerels to call him in the mornings half an hour earlier than anyone else, and would put in some volunteer labour at whatever seemed to be most needed, before the regular day's work began.

Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal.

A rumour went round that Snowball had after all contrived to introduce poison into Napoleon's food.

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.

It was well seasoned, and Whymper had advised Napoleon to sell it; both Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick were anxious to buy it.

"Gentlemen," concluded Mr. Pilkington, "gentlemen, I give you a toast: To the prosperity of Animal Farm!"

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.

Mollie agreed, but she did not sound very convinced.

A rumour went round that Snowball had after all contrived to introduce poison into Napoleon's food.

Without halting for an instant, Snowball flung his fifteen stone against Jones's legs.

Wistful glances were sent in the direction of Foxwood.

Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.

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.

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.

She was between the shafts of a smart dogcart painted red and black, which was standing outside a public-house.

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 he very nearly succeeded--I will even say, comrades, he WOULD have succeeded if it had not been for our heroic Leader, Comrade Napoleon.

It had become usual to give Napoleon the credit for every successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune.

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.

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.

But it reminded me of something that I had long forgotten.

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.

When the boulder began to slip and the animals cried out in despair at finding themselves dragged down the hill, it was always Boxer who strained himself against the rope and brought the boulder to a stop.

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 slaught

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.

In glowing sentences he painted a picture of Animal Farm as it might be when sordid labour was lifted from the animals' backs.

The distinguishing mark of man is the HAND, the instrument with which he does all his mischief."

"Comrade," said Snowball, "those ribbons that you are so devoted to are the badge of slavery.

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.

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.

It was just then that Mr. Jones woke up.

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.

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.