CHAPTER 10
Years passed. The seasons came and went, the short animal lives fled by.
A time came when there was no one who remembered the old days
before the Rebellion, except Clover, Benjamin, Moses the raven, and a
number of the pigs.
CHAPTER 9
Boxer’s split hoof was a long time in healing. They had started the
rebuilding of the windmill the day after the victory celebrations were
ended. Boxer refused to take even a day off work, and made it a point of
honour not to let it be seen that he was in pain. In the evenings he would
admit privately to Clover that the hoof troubled him a great deal.
CHAPTER 8
A few days later, when the terror caused by the executions had died
down, some of the animals remembered — or thought they remembered
— that the Sixth Commandment decreed “No animal shall kill any other
animal.”
CHAPTER 7
It was a bitter winter. The stormy weather was followed by sleet and
snow, and then by a hard frost which did not break till well into
February. The animals carried on as best they could with the rebuilding
of the windmill, well knowing that the outside world was watching them
and that the envious human beings would rejoice and triumph if the mill
were not finished on time.
CHAPTER 6
All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their
work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that
they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who
would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human
beings.
CHAPTER 5
As winter drew on, Mollie became more and more troublesome. She was
late for work every morning and excused herself by saying that she had
overslept, and she complained of mysterious pains, although her appetite
was excellent. 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. But there were also rumours of
something more serious. One day, as Mollie strolled blithely into the
yard, flirting her long tail and chewing at a stalk of hay, Clover took her
aside.
CHAPTER 4
By the late summer the news of what had happened on Animal Farm had
spread across half the county. Every day Snowball and Napoleon sent out
flights of pigeons whose instructions were to mingle with the animals on
neighbouring farms, tell them the story of the Rebellion, and teach them
the tune of ‘Beasts of England’.
CHAPTER 3
How they toiled and sweated to get the hay in! But their efforts were
rewarded, for the harvest was an even bigger success than they had
hoped.
CHAPTER 2
Three nights later old Major died peacefully in his sleep. His body was
buried at the foot of the orchard.
CHAPTER 1
Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night,
but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. 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 was already snoring.
