And then, after a few preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into Beasts of England in tremendous unison. The cows lowed it, the dogs whined it, the sheep bleated it, the horses whinnied it, the ducks quacked it. They were so delighted with the song that they sang it right through five times in succession, and might have continued singing it al night if they had not been interrupted. Unfortunately, the uproar awoke Mr. Jones, who sprang out of bed, making sure that there was a fox in the yard. He seized the gun which always stood in a corner of his bedroom, and let fly a charge of number 6 shot into the darkness. The pel ets buried themselves in the wal of the barn and the meeting broke up hurriedly. Everyone fled to his own sleeping-place. The birds jumped on to their perches, the animals settled down in the straw, and the whole farm was asleep in a moment. I

THREE nights later old Major died peaceful y 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 had given to the more intel igent animals on the farm a completely new outlook on life. They did not know when the Rebel ion predicted by Major would take place, they had no reason for thinking 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 organising the others fel natural y upon the pigs, who were general y recognised as being the cleverest of the animals. Pre-eminent among the pigs were two young boars named Snowbal and Napoleon, whom Mr. Jones was breeding up for sale. Napoleon was a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way. Snowbal was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character. Al the other male pigs on the farm were porke rs. The best known among them was a smal fat pig named Squealer, with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shril voice. He was a bril iant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and Page 4

Orwell, George : Animal Farm

whisking his tail which was somehow very persuasive. The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white.

These three had 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," or made elementary remarks such as "Mr.