All four of them sprang to their feet and began to speak at once. But suddenly the dogs growled, and the pigs sat down again. Then the sheep began to bleat “Four legs good, two legs bad!” and put an end to any discussion.
Afterwards Squealer explained the new arrangement to the others.
“Comrades,” he said, “I trust that every animal here appreciates this Comrade Napoleon’s sacrifice. Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. But sometimes you make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where will we be? If you followed Snowball-Snowball, who, as we now know, was a criminal…”
“He fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed,” said somebody.
“Bravery is not enough,” said Squealer. “Loyalty and obedience are more important. So the Battle of the Cowshed… I believe the time will come when we shall find that Snowball’s part in it was much exaggerated. Discipline, comrades, iron discipline! That is the watchword for today. One false step, and our enemies will be here. Surely, comrades, you do not want to see Jones again!”
Once again this argument was unanswerable. Certainly the animals did not want Jones back. Boxer thought and said:
“If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.”
And from then on he adopted the maxim, “Napoleon is always right,” in addition to his private motto of “I will work harder.”
By this time the spring ploughing began. The shed where Snowball drew his plans of the windmill was shut up. Every Sunday morning at ten o’clock the animals assembled in the big barn to receive their orders for the week. The skull of old Major was disinterred from the orchard and set up on a stump at the foot of the flagstaff, beside the gun. The animals must go past the skull in a reverent manner and only after that enter the barn.
Nowadays they did not sit all together. Napoleon, with Squealer and another pig named Minimus, who had a remarkable gift – he composed songs and poems – sat on the front of the platform. Nine young dogs formed a semicircle round them. The other pigs sat behind. The rest of the animals sat in the main body of the barn and faced them. Napoleon read out the orders for the week in a gruff style, and after 'Beasts of England’, all the animals dispersed.
On the third Sunday after Snowball’s expulsion, the animals were surprised. Napoleon had something to announce. The windmill will be built! He changed his mind and did not explain it. This extra task means very hard work, it will be necessary to reduce their rations. A special committee of pigs will work on it. The building of the windmill, with various other improvements, will take two years.
That evening Squealer explained privately to the other animals that Napoleon was never in reality opposed to the windmill. On the contrary, it was he who advocated it in the beginning. Snowball actually stole the plan of the windmill from Napoleon’s papers. The windmill was, in fact, Napoleon’s own creation. Why, then, asked somebody, did he speak so strongly against it? Here Squealer looked very sly. That, he said, was Comrade Napoleon’s cunning. It was a manoeuvre to get rid of Snowball, who was a dangerous criminal. Now Snowball is far way, and the plan can go forward without his interference. This, said Squealer, was tactics. He repeated some times, “Tactics, comrades, tactics!”
The animals were not certain what the word meant. But Squealer spoke so persuasively, and the three dogs growled so threateningly, that they accepted his explanation without further questions.
Chapter VI
All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work. They were aware that everything that they did was for the benefit of themselves, and not for those idle men who were just thieves.
Throughout the spring and summer they worked a sixty-hour week. In August Napoleon made an announcement. They will work on Sunday afternoons as well. This work is strictly voluntary, but any animal who absents himself from it will have his rations reduced by half.
The harvest was less successful than in the previous year, and two fields were not sown. The winter will be a hard one.
The windmill presented unexpected difficulties. They saw limestone, plenty of sand and cement on the farm and in an outhouse. They had all the materials for building. But the problem was how to break up the stone into pieces. Picks and crowbars? No animal was able to use them, because nobody stood on his hind legs. Then the right idea occurred to somebody – namely, to utilize the force of gravity. They took huge boulders. The animals lashed ropes round these. Then all together, cows, horses, sheep-even the pigs sometimes joined in at critical moments-they dragged them with desperate slowness up the slope to the top of the quarry, where they were toppled over the edge, to shatter to pieces below. To transport the broken stone was comparatively simple. The horses carried it off in cart-loads, the sheep dragged single blocks. Even Muriel and Benjamin yoked themselves into an old cart. Then the building began, under the superintendence of the pigs.
But it was a slow, laborious process. Nothing was possible without Boxer, whose strength was enormous. When the boulder began to slip and the animals cried out in despair, it was always Boxer who strained himself against the rope and brought the boulder to a stop.
Clover warned him sometimes to be careful not to overstrain himself. Boxer never listened to her. His two slogans, “I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right,” was a sufficient answer to all problems. He woke up three-quarters of an hour earlier in the mornings instead of half an hour. And in his free time, he went alone to the quarry, collected broken stones, and dragged them down.
The animals were not unhappy throughout that summer, in spite of the hardness of their work. They had no more food than in Jones’s day, but at least they did not have less. They must feed only themselves, and must not support five extravagant men! And the animal method of work was more efficient and saved labour. Since no animal now stole, it was unnecessary to fence off pasture from arable land.
Nevertheless, there was need of paraffin oil, nails, string, dog biscuits, and iron for the horses’ shoes. The farm produced nothing. Later they will also need seeds and artificial manures, besides various tools and, finally, the machinery for the windmill. How to get them? No one was able to imagine.
One Sunday morning, when the animals assembled to receive their orders, Napoleon announced a new policy. Animal Farm will engage in trade with the neighbouring farms. Not, of course, for any commercial purpose, but simply in order to obtain certain materials which were urgently necessary. The needs of the windmill must override everything else, he said. Therefore he made arrangements to sell hay and part of the current year’s wheat crop, and later on, eggs, for which there was always a market in Willingdon. The hens will welcome this sacrifice towards the building of the windmill.
Once again the animals were uneasy. Their resolutions were as these: never to have any business with men, never to engage in trade, never to use money. All the animals remembered such resolutions. At least they thought that they remembered them. Four young pigs raised their voices timidly, but they heard a tremendous growling from the dogs. Then, as usual, the sheep began to bleat “Four legs good, two legs bad!”
Finally Napoleon raised his trotter and announced that he made all the arrangements. No animal will come in contact with people, it is undesirable. He intended to take the whole burden upon his own shoulders. Mr. Whymper, a solicitor from Willingdon, agreed to act as intermediary between Animal Farm and the outside world. He will visit the farm every Monday morning to receive his instructions. Napoleon ended his speech with his usual cry of “Long live Animal Farm!”
Afterwards Squealer assured the animals that the resolution against trade money
