Their most faithful disciples were the two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover. These two had great difficulty in thinking. But they accepted the pigs as their teachers, and then they absorbed everything that the pigs told them. These horses passed it on to the other animals by simple arguments. They were the first animals at the secret meetings in the barn, and led the singing of Beasts of England, with which the meetings always ended.
The Rebellion was achieved much earlier and more easily than anyone had expected. In past years Mr. Jones, although a hard master, was a capable farmer. But now evil days arrived. He became much disheartened. He lost money in a lawsuit, and was drinking much. For whole days he was lounging in his chair in the kitchen, reading the newspapers, drinking, and occasionally feeding Moses on crusts of bread. His men were idle and dishonest, the fields were full of weeds, the buildings ruined, the hedges were neglected, and the animals were underfed.
June came and the hay was almost ready for cutting. On Midsummers Eve, which was a Saturday, Mr. Jones went into Willingdon and got so drunk[10] at the Red Lion that he did not come back till midday on Sunday. The workers milked the cows in the early morning and then went out. They did not feed the animals. When Mr. Jones got back he immediately went to sleep on the drawing-room sofa with the newspaper over his face. When evening came, the animals were still hungry. At last they could stand it no longer[11].
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. This was more than the hungry animals could bear.
They flung themselves upon their tormentors. The animals butted and kicked Jones and his men from all sides. The situation was quite out of their control. This sudden uprising of animals whom they thrashed and maltreated, frightened them a lot. Soon the men gave up, they were trying to defend themselves. A minute later all five of them were in the cart-track that led to the main road. The animals were pursuing them in triumph.
Mrs. Jones looked out of the bedroom window. She saw what was happening, hurriedly flung a few possessions into a carpet bag, and slipped out of the farm. Moses sprang off his perch and flapped after her, croaking loudly. Meanwhile the animals chased Jones and his men out on to the road and slammed the five-barred gate behind them. And so 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 round the boundaries of the farm to make 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 Joness 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 castrated the pigs and lambs, were all flung down. The reins, the halters, the blinkers 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 in flames. Snowball also threw on to the fire the ribbons with which the horses manes and tails were usually decorated on market days.
«Ribbons,» he said, «are clothes, which are the mark of a human being. All animals must 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.
Soon the animals 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 seven times, and after that they settled down for the night and slept peacefully.
But they woke at dawn as usual, and suddenly remembered the glorious victory. So they all raced out into the pasture together. A little way down the pasture there was a knoll. 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. They could hardly believe that it was all their own.
Then they came 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. They tiptoed from room to room, afraid to speak loudly and gazing 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 drawing-room mantelpiece. They were just coming down the stairs when Mollie disappeared.
They went back and found that she was in the best bedroom. She took a piece of blue ribbon from Mrs. Joness 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. The animals took some hams from the kitchen to bury them. Boxers hoof kicked the barrel of beer in the scullery. They did not touch anything in the house. The farmhouse will be 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.»
The pigs now revealed that during the past three months they were teaching themselves to read and write from an old book which belonged to Mr. Joness children. Napoleon sent for pots of black and white paint and led the way down to the gate. Then Snowball (Snowball was the best writer) 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 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. They set it against the end wall of the big barn. They explained that by their studies of the past three months the pigs reduced the principles of Animalism to Seven Commandments. These Seven Commandments will now be inscribed on the wall. They will 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. Squealer was holding the paint-pot[12]. The Commandments were written on the tarred wall in great white letters. They ran thus:
ccc
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.
/ccc
It was very neatly written, and except that «friend» was written «freind» and one of the «Ss» was the wrong way round[13], the spelling was correct. 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 get in the harvest more quickly than Jones and his men could do.»
But at this moment the three cows, who seemed uneasy, began to moo. They were not milked for twenty-four hours, and their udders were almost bursting. After a little thought, the pigs sent for buckets and milked the cows successfully. Their trotters were well adapted to this task. Soon there were five buckets of frothing creamy milk. Many of the animals looked at the buckets with considerable interest.
«What will happen to that milk?» said someone.
«Jones sometimes mixed 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[14]. 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 went to the hayfield to begin the harvest. When they came back in the evening the milk had disappeared.
Chapter III
How they toiled and sweated! But their efforts were rewarded, for the harvest was even bigger than they hoped.
Sometimes the work was hard; the implements were designed for human beings and not for animals. It was a great drawback that no animal was able to use any tool to stand on his hind legs. But the pigs were so clever that they could find the way. 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.
The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they assumed the leadership.
Boxer and Clover harnessed themselves to the cutter or the horse-rake (no bits or reins, of course) and tramped steadily round and round the field. A pig was walking behind and calling out «Gee up, comrade!» or «Whoa back, comrade!»
Every animal worked, they turned the hay and gathered it. Even the ducks and hens toiled to and fro all day in the sun. They carried tiny wisps of hay in their beaks. In the end they finished the harvest in two days less time than it usually took 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 not an animal on the farm stole anything.
All through 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, produced by themselves and for themselves! The worthless parasitical human beings are gone, there was more for everyone to eat. There was more leisure too.
They met with many difficulties for instance, later in the year, when they harvested the corn, they treaded it out in the ancient style and 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 Joness time, but now he seemed more like three horses than one. There were days when the entire work of the farm rested on his mighty shoulders. From morning to night he was pushing and pulling. He made an arrangement with one of the cockerels to call him in the mornings half an hour earlier than anyone else. His answer to every problem, every setback, was «I will work harder!» It was 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 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, and was always ready to leave work early on the ground when was a stone in her hoof. And the behaviour of the cat was peculiar. It was soon noticed that when there was work the cat was always absent. She could vanish for hours, and then reappear at meal-times, or in the evening after work. 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 slowly as he was doing it in Joness time. He was never shirking and never volunteering for extra work either. About the Rebellion and its results he expressed no opinion. When the others asked him whether he was happy or not, he said only «Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey».
On Sundays there was no work. Breakfast was an hour later than usual, and after breakfast there was a ceremony. First came the hoisting of the flag. Snowball found in the harness-room an old green tablecloth of Mrs. Joness and painted on it a hoof and a horn in white. This was the flag in the farmhouse garden. The flag was green, Snowball explained, to represent the green fields of England, while the hoof and horn signified the future Republic of the Animals. This Republic will arise when the human race is 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 they planned the work of the next week and put forward some resolutions. 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 was against it. Even when it was resolved to set aside the small paddock behind the orchard as a home of rest for the old animals, there was a stormy debate over the correct retiring age[15] for each class of animal. The Meeting always ended with the singing of Beasts of England.
The harness-room was a headquarters for the pigs. Here, in the evenings, they studied blacksmithing, carpentering, and other necessary arts from books which they brought out of the farmhouse. Snowball also organized the other animals into Animal Committees. He was indefatigable at this. 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, besides 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. If someone treated the wild animals with generosity, they simply took advantage of it. The cat joined the Re-education Committee and was very active in it for some days. One time she was sitting on a roof and talking to some sparrows. She was telling them that all animals were now comrades and that any sparrow could come and perch on her paw. But the sparrows kept their distance.
Примечания
1
Manor Farm ферма «Усадьба»
2
pop-holes дыры в стене
3
tushes клыки