LITMIR.BIZ

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no man was there. Then they raced back to the farm buildings to wipe out the last traces of Jones’s reign.

      The harness-room at the end of the stables was open. The bits, the nose-rings, the dog-chains, the cruel knives with which Mr. Jones castrated the pigs and lambs, were all on the ground. The animals threw the reins, the halters, the blinkers and the whips into the fire. All the animals moaned when they saw the whips in flames. Snowball also threw into the fire the ribbons with which the horses’ manes and tails were usually decorated on market days.

      “Ribbons,” he said, “are the man’s clothes. All animals must go naked.”

      Soon the animals destroyed everything that reminded them of Mr. Jones. Napoleon then led them back to the store-shed and gave a double ration of corn to everybody. More over, each dog got two biscuits. Then they sang 'Beasts of England’ seven times, and after that they went to sleep peacefully.

      But they woke at dawn as usual, and suddenly remembered the glorious victory. So they all ran to the pasture together. A little way down the pasture there was a knoll. The animals rushed to the top of it. Yes, it was theirs-everything was theirs! In the ecstasy, they gambolled round and round, they hurled themselves into the air. They rolled in the dew, they cropped mouthfuls of the sweet summer grass. They kicked up clods of the black earth. Then they made a tour of inspection of the whole farm. They surveyed the ploughland, the hayfield, the orchard, the pool, the spinney. They did not believe their eyes – everything was theirs!

      Then they came back to the farm buildings and halted outside the door of the farmhouse. It was their house too, but they were frightened to go inside. After a moment, however, Snowball and Napoleon opened the door with their shoulders and the animals entered. They tiptoed from room to room. They were afraid to speak loudly. They gazed with awe at the unbelievable luxury, at the beds with their feather mattresses, the looking-glasses, the horsehair sofa, the carpet, the lithograph of Queen Victoria over the mantelpiece. They came down the stairs and saw Mollie.

      They went back and found that she was in the best bedroom. She took a piece of blue ribbon from Mrs. Jones’s dressing-table. She held it against her shoulder and admired herself in the mirror. The others reproached her. The animals took some hams from the kitchen to bury them. Boxer’s hoof kicked the barrel of beer in the scullery. They did not touch anything in the house. The farmhouse will be a museum. No animal must live there.

      The animals had their breakfast. Then Snowball and Napoleon called them together again.

      “Comrades,” said Snowball, “it is half-past six. We have a long day before us. Today we begin the hay harvest. But there is another matter.”

      During the past three months the pigs taught themselves to read and write from an old book which belonged to Mr. Jones’s children. Napoleon took the black and white paint and went to the gate. Then Snowball (Snowball was the best writer) took a brush between the two knuckles of his trotter. He paintedout[12] MANOR FARM from the top of the gate and in its place painted ANIMAL FARM. This was the real name of the farm!

      After this they went back to the farm buildings. Snowball and Napoleon sent for a ladder. They set it against the end wall of the big barn. They explained the pigs reduced the principles of Animalism to Seven Commandments. These Seven Commandments will now be written on the wall. They will form an unalterable law for all the animals on Animal Farm.

      With some difficulty (for it is not easy for a pig to balance himself on a ladder) Snowball climbed up and began to work. Squealer held the paint-pot[13]. The Commandments were written on the wall in great white letters:

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 must wear clothes.

      4. No animal must sleep in a bed.

      5. No animal must drink alcohol.

      6. No animal must kill any other animal.

      7. All animals are equal.

      It was very good. Except that the word “friend” was written “freind” and one of the “S’s” was the wrong way round[14], the spelling was correct. Snowball read it aloud. All the animals nodded in agreement. The cleverer animals began to learn the Commandments by heart.

      “Now, comrades,” cried Snowball and threw down the paint-brush, “to the hayfield! Let us work more quickly than Jones and his men!”

      But at this moment the three cows began to moo. They were not milked for twenty-four hours. After a little thought, the pigs sent for buckets and milked the cows successfully. Soon there were five buckets of milk. Many of the animals looked at the buckets with interest.

      “What will happen to that milk?” said someone.

      “Jones sometimes mixed some of it in our mash,” said one of the hens.

      “Don’t think about the milk, comrades!” cried Napoleon and stood in front of the buckets. “The harvest is more important. Comrade Snowball will lead the way. I shall follow in a few minutes. Forward, comrades! The hay waits for us!”

      So the animals went to the hayfield to begin to work. When they came back in the evening the milk disappeared.

      Chapter III

      How they toiled and sweated! But their efforts were rewarded. The harvest was even bigger than they hoped.

      Sometimes the work was hard. The instruments were for men and not for animals. At first, no animal was able to use any tool. But the pigs were very clever. They found the way. As for the horses, they knew every inch of the field, and understood the business better than Jones and his men.

      The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. They had their superior knowledge, so they were the leaders.

      Boxer and Clover harnessed themselves to the cutter or the horse-rake. No bits or reins, of course. Then they and tramped steadily round and round the field. A pig walked behind and called out “Gee up, comrade!” or “Whoa back, comrade!”

      Every animal worked. They turned the hay and gathered it. Even the ducks and hens toiled all day in the sun. They carried tiny wisps of hay in their beaks. In the end they finished the harvest sooner than usually did Jones and his men. Moreover, it was the biggest harvest on the farm. There was no wastage. The hens and ducks with their sharp eyes gathered up every stalk. And nobody on the farm stole anything.

      In that summer the work of the farm went like clockwork. The animals were happy. Every mouthful of food was their big pleasure. It was truly their own food. They produced it by themselves and for themselves! The worthless parasitical men are gone, there was more food for everyone. There was more leisure too.

      But the animals met with many difficulties. For instance, when they harvested the corn, they treaded it out blew away the chaff with their breath. But the pigs with their cleverness and Boxer with his tremendous muscles always helped them. Everybody admired Boxer. He was a hard worker even in Jones’s time. Now he worked like three horses. There were days when the entire work of the farm rested on his mighty shoulders. From morning to night he pushed and pulled something. One of the cockerels called him very early in the mornings to start his work. His answer to every problem was “I will work harder!” It was his personal motto.

      Everyone worked according to his capacity. The hens and ducks, for instance, saved five bushels of corn at the harvest. They gathered up the stray grains. Nobody stole, nobody grumbled over his rations. The quarrels and jealousy which were normal features of life in the old days almost disappeared. Nobody shirked-or almost nobody.

      Mollie, it was true, did not like to get up early in the mornings. She was always ready to leave work early when she saw a stone in her hoof. And the behaviour of the cat was peculiar. When there was work the cat was always absent. She vanished for hours, and then reappeared at meal-times, or in the evening after work. But

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