Chapter II

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 gave 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 to think 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 organizing the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were the cleverest of the animals. Pre-eminent among the pigs were two young boars named Snowball and Napoleon. Mr. Jones was breeding them up for sale.

Napoleon was a large, fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not a talker, but with a reputation. Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but did not 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^[7], with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker. When he was arguing some difficult point he was skipping from side to side and whisking his tail which was very persuasive. They said that Squealer could turn black into white.

These three 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». They made elementary remarks such as «Mr. Jones feeds us. If he is gone, we shall starve to death^[8]».

Others asked such questions as «Why should we care what happens after we are dead?» or «If this Rebellion happens anyway, what difference does it make whether we work for it or not?» The pigs had great difficulty in making them see that this was contrary to the spirit of Animalism. Mollie, the white mare asked the stupidest questions of all. The very first question she asked Snowball was:

«Will there still be sugar after the Rebellion?»

«No,» said Snowball firmly. «We can’t make sugar on this farm. Besides, you do not need sugar. You will have all the oats and hay you want.»

«And will I still wear ribbons in my mane?» asked Mollie.

«Comrade,» said Snowball, «those ribbons of yours 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 knew of the existence of a mysterious country called Sugarcandy Mountain^[9], 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 argued 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. 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 Midsummer’s 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 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 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. 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. 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. 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. Jones’s 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 «S’s» 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.