LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

one another with horseshoes, and had common females. This was against the laws of Nature, Frederick and Pilkington said.

      However, the people did not believe these stories. Rumours of a wonderful farm, where the animals managed their own affairs, continued to circulate. Throughout that year a wave of rebelliousness ran through the countryside. Bulls which were always tractable suddenly became savage. Sheep broke down hedges and devoured the clover. Cows kicked the pail over. Above all, everyone knew the music and even the words of 'Beasts of England’. It spread with astonishing speed. The men did not contain their rage when they heard this song, though they said, “It’s ridiculous!”

      And yet the song was irrepressible. The blackbirds whistled it in the hedges, the pigeons cooed it in the elms. And when the people listened to it, they secretly trembled.

      Early in October, when the corn was cut and stacked, some pigeons 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, entered the five-barred gate and came to the farm. They all carried sticks, except Jones, who marched ahead with a gun in his hands. Obviously they wanted to attempt the recapture of the farm.

      The animals were ready. The made all preparations. Snowball, who studied an old book of Julius Caesar’s campaigns (he found it 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 men approached the farm buildings, Snowball launched his first attack. All the pigeons flew over the men’s heads and muted upon them. Then the geese rushed out and pecked viciously at the calves of their legs. However, this was only a light manoeuvre. The animals intended to create a little disorder. The men easily drove the geese off with their sticks.

      Snowball now launched his second line of attack. Muriel, Benjamin, and all the sheep, with Snowball at the head of them, rushed forward. They prodded and butted the men from every side. Benjamin turned around and lashed at them with his small hoofs. But once again the men were too strong for them. The people had their sticks and their heavy boots. Suddenly, Snowball gave a squeal. It 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 rushed after their enemies. This was Snowball’s plan. As soon as the men were inside the yard, the three horses, the three cows, and the rest of the pigs suddenly emerged in their rear. Snowball gave the signal. He himself dashed straight for Jones. Jones raised his gun and fired. The pellets scored bloody streaks along Snowball’s back, and a sheep was dead.

      Snowball flung against Jones’s legs. Jones was hurled into a pile of dung. He lost his gun. But the most terrifying spectacle of all was Boxer. He reared up on his hind legs and stroke out with his great hoofs like a stallion. He pushed a stable-lad[18] and stretched him lifeless in the mud.

      At the sight, several men dropped their sticks and tried to run. Panic overtook them. The next moment all the animals together began to chase them round and round the yard. Every animal on the farm took vengeance on them. Even the cat suddenly leapt off a roof onto a cowman’s shoulders. She sank her claws in his neck. The cowman yelled horribly. The men were glad to rush out of the yard.

      All the men were gone except one. Back in the yard Boxer pawed with his hoof at the stable-lad. The boy lay face down in the mud and did not move.

      “He is dead,” said Boxer sorrowfully. “I forgot that I had iron shoes. Who will believe that I did not do this on purpose?”

      “No sentimentality, comrade!” cried Snowball from whose wounds the blood still dripped. “War is war. The only good man is a dead man.”

      “I don’t want to kill men,” repeated Boxer. His eyes were full of tears.

      “Where is Mollie?” exclaimed somebody.

      Indeed, where was Mollie? For a moment there was great alarm. In the end, however, they found her. She hid in her stall. Her head buried among the hay in the manger. And when the others came back, the stable-lad, who was only stunned, already recovered and ran away.

      The animals now reassembled in the excitement. Everyone recounted his own exploits in the battle. They celebrated the victory! They ran up the flag and sang 'Beasts of England’. The poor sheep was buried. A hawthorn bush was planted on her grave.

      At the graveside Snowball made a little speech. He emphasized the need for all animals to be ready to die for the Animal Farm. The animals decided unanimously to create a military decoration[19], “Animal Hero, First Class”. Snowball and Boxer were rewarded. It consisted of a brass medal (an old horse-brass from the harness-room). There was also “Animal Hero, Second Class”: the dead sheep was rewarded posthumously.

      The animals named this fight “The Battle of the Cowshed”. The animals set Mr. Jones’s gun at the foot of the Flagstaff to fire it twice a year. October the twelfth was the anniversary of the Battle of the Cowshed. And Midsummer Day was the anniversary of the Rebellion.

      Chapter V

      In winter, Mollie became more and more troublesome. She was late for work every morning, and she complained of mysterious pains. But her appetite was excellent. She often ran away from work and went to the drinking pool. There she stood and gazed foolishly at her own reflection in the water. But there were something more serious. One day, when Mollie flirted her long tail and chewed at a stalk of hay, Clover took her aside.

      “Mollie,” she said, “I have something very serious to say to you. This morning you looked over the hedge that divides Animal Farm from Foxwood. One of Mr. Pilkington’s men stood on the other side of the hedge. And I saw this-he talked to you and you allowed him to stroke your nose. What does that mean, Mollie?”

      “He didn’t! I wasn’t! It isn’t true!” cried Mollie.

      “Mollie! Look at me. Do you give me your word of honour that the man did not stroke your nose?”

      “It isn’t true!” repeated Mollie, but she did not look at Clover. The next moment she galloped away into the field.

      Clover did not say anything to the others. She went to Mollie’s stall and turned over the straw with her hoof. Clover found a little pile of lump sugar and several bunches of ribbon of different colours under the straw.

      Three days later Mollie disappeared. For some weeks nobody saw her. Then the pigeons reported that they saw her on the other side of Willingdon. She was between the shafts of a smart dogcart, which was outside a public-house[20]. A fat red-faced man in breeches and gaiters, probably a publican[21], stroked her nose and fed her with sugar. She had a new coat and she wore a scarlet ribbon round her forelock. She was happy, so the pigeons said. None of the animals ever mentioned Mollie again.

      In January there came hard weather. The earth was like iron, and the animals did not work in the fields. They attended meetings in the big barn. The pigs planned out the future work. The pigs, who were manifestly cleverer than the other animals, will decide all questions of farm policy. But their decisions will be ratified by a majority vote.

      This arrangement worked well enough. But the disputes between Snowball and Napoleon! These two disagreed at every point where disagreement was possible. If one of them offered to sow a bigger acreage with barley, the other demanded a bigger acreage of oats. If one of them said that a field was just right for cabbages, the other declared that it was useless for anything except roots. There were violent debates between them. At the Meetings Snowball often won over the majority by his brilliant speeches. But Napoleon was better at intrigues. He was especially successful with the sheep. The sheep often bleated “Four legs good, two legs bad”, and they often interrupted the Meeting with this. They began to bleat “Four legs good, two legs bad” at crucial moments in Snowball’s speeches.

      Snowball read some 'Farmer and Stockbreeder’ magazines which he found in the farmhouse. He was full of plans for innovations and improvements. He

Скачать книгу