Animal Farm | Page 6

theirs.

For the first few minutes the animals could hardly believe in their good fortune. Their first act was to gallop
in a body right round the boundaries of the farm, as though to make quite 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 had been used to castrate the pigs and lambs, were all
flung down the well. The reins, the halters, the blinkers, the degrading nosebags, 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 going up in flames. Snowball also threw on to the fire the ribbons with which the horses'
manes and tails had usually been decorated on market days.

"Ribbons," he said, "should be considered as clothes, which are the mark of a human being. All animals
should 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 with the rest.

In a very little while the animals had 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 from end to end seven times running, and after that they settled
down for the night and slept as they had never slept before.

But they woke at dawn as usual, and suddenly remembering the glorious thing that had happened, they all
raced out into the pasture together. A little way down the pasture there was a knoll that commanded a view of
most of the farm. 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. It was as though they had never seen these things before, and
even now they could hardly believe that it was all their own.

Then they filed 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 in single file, walking with the utmost care for fear
of disturbing anything. They tiptoed from room to room, afraid to speak above a whisper and gazing with a
kind of awe at the unbelievable luxury, at the beds with their feather mattresses, the looking-glasses, the
horsehair sofa, the Brussels carpet, the lithograph of Queen Victoria over the drawing-room mantelpiece.
They were lust coming down the stairs when Mollie was discovered to be missing. Going back, the others
found that she had remained behind in the best bedroom. She had taken 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. Some hams hanging in the kitchen

II 7



Animal Farm

were taken out for burial, and the barrel of beer in the scullery was stove in with a kick from Boxer's
hoof,-otherwise nothing in the house was touched. A unanimous resolution was passed on the spot that the
farmhouse should be preserved as 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 that must be attended to first."

The pigs now revealed that during the past three months they had taught themselves to read and write from an
old spelling book which had belonged to Mr. Jones's children and which had been thrown on the rubbish
heap. Napoleon sent for pots of black and white paint and led the way down to the five-barred