George Orwell - Animal farm / Скотный двор. Уровень 2

The animals listened first to Napoleon, then to Snowball. They did not know which was right. Indeed, they always liked the one who spoke at the moment.

At last the day came when Snowball’s plans were completed. At the Meeting on the following Sunday the question of the windmill was put to the vote. When the animals assembled in the big barn, Snowball stood up and advocated the building of the windmill.

Then Napoleon stood up to reply. He said very quietly that the windmill was nonsense. Napoleon advised nobody to vote for it, and promptly sat down again. At this Snowball sprang to his feet. In a moment Snowball’s eloquence carried the animals away. He painted a wonderful picture of the future Animal Farm. His imagination was far beyond chaff-cutters and turnip-slicers. Electricity will operate threshing machines, ploughs, harrows, rollers, and reapers and binders. Electricity will supply every stall with its own electric light, hot and cold water, and an electric heater. There will be no doubt how to vote will go now. But just at this moment Napoleon stood up and uttered a strange whimper.

Nine enormous dogs came into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball. Snowball sprang from his place to escape their jaws. In a moment he was out of the door and the dogs were after him. All the animals were very amazed and frightened. They did not speak. Snowball raced across the long pasture that led to the road. Then he slipped through a hole in the hedge and ran away.

The animals were silent and terrified. They crept back into the barn. In a moment the dogs came back. Where did these creatures come from? They were the puppies whom Napoleon took away from their mothers and reared privately. They were huge dogs, and as fierce as wolves. They kept close to Napoleon and wagged their tails to him.

Napoleon, with the dogs, now mounted on to deliver his speech. The Sunday-morning Meetings will come to an end. They were unnecessary, he said, and wasted time. In future all questions will be settled by a special committee of pigs. He himself will preside. Then the others will learn the decisions. The animals will still assemble on Sunday mornings to salute the flag, sing 'Beasts of England’, and receive their orders for the week. But there will be no more debates.

Snowball’s expulsion gave the animals the great shock. They were dismayed by this announcement. Several of them even wanted to protest but they did not find the right arguments. Even Boxer was vaguely troubled. He shook his forelock several times, and tried hard to marshal his thoughts. But in the end he did not say anything. Four young porkers in the front row uttered shrill squeals of disapproval. 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.

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.