Nevertheless, feeling against Frederick continued to run high. One Sunday morning Napoleon appeared in the barn and explained that he had never at any time contemplated selling the pile of timber to Frederick; he considered it beneath his dignity, he said, to have dealings with scoundrels of that description. 🔊 The pigeons who were still sent out to spread tidings of the Rebellion were forbidden to set foot anywhere on Foxwood, and were also ordered to drop their former slogan of "Death to Humanity" in favour of "Death to Frederick." 🔊 In the late summer yet another of Snowball's machinations was laid bare. The wheat crop was full of weeds, and it was discovered that on one of his nocturnal visits Snowball had mixed weed seeds with the seed corn. 🔊

A gander who had been privy to the plot had confessed his guilt to Squealer and immediately committed suicide by swallowing deadly nightshade berries. 🔊 The animals now also learned that Snowball had never−as many of them had believed hitherto−received the order of "Animal Hero First Class." 🔊 This was merely a legend which had been spread some time after the Battle of the Cowshed by Snowball himself. 🔊 So far from being decorated, he had been censured for showing cowardice in the battle. 🔊 Once again some of the animals heard this with a certain bewilderment, but Squealer was soon able to convince them that their memories had been at fault. 🔊

In the autumn, by a tremendous, exhausting effort−for the harvest had to be gathered at almost the same time−the windmill was finished. 🔊 The machinery had still to be installed, and Whymper was negotiating the purchase of it, but the structure was completed. 🔊 In the teeth of every difficulty, in spite of inexperience, of primitive implements, of bad luck and of Snowball's treachery, the work had been finished punctually to the very day! 🔊 Tired out but proud, the animals walked round and round their masterpiece, which appeared even more beautiful in their eyes than when it had been built the first time. 🔊 Moreover, the walls were twice as thick as before. Nothing short of explosives would lay them low this time! 🔊 And when they thought of how they had laboured, what discouragements they had overcome, and the enormous difference that would be made in their lives when the sails were turning and the dynamos running−when they thought of all this, their tiredness forsook them and they gambolled round and round the windmill, uttering cries of triumph. 🔊 Napoleon himself, attended by his dogs and his cockerel, came down to inspect the completed work; he personally congratulated the animals on their achievement, and announced that the mill would be named Napoleon Mill. 🔊