← The hens perched themselves on the window−sills, the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters, the sheep and cows lay down behind the pigs and began to chew the cud. 🔊
← When Major saw that they had all made themselves comfortable and were waiting attentively, he cleared his throat and began: "Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. 🔊
← It is called Beasts of England." Old Major cleared his throat and began to sing. 🔊
← The singing of this song threw the animals into the wildest excitement. Almost before Major had reached the end, they had begun singing it for themselves. 🔊
← At last they could stand it no longer. One of the cows broke in the door of the store−shed with her horn and all the animals began to help themselves from the bins. 🔊
← Snowball read it aloud for the benefit of the others. All the animals nodded in complete agreement, and the cleverer ones at once began to learn the Commandments by heart. 🔊
← Forward, comrades! The hay is waiting." So the animals trooped down to the hayfield to begin the harvest, and when they came back in the evening it was noticed that the milk had disappeared. 🔊
← He had made an arrangement with one of the cockerels to call him in the mornings half an hour earlier than anyone else, and would put in some volunteer labour at whatever seemed to be most needed, before the regular day's work began. 🔊
← When time passed and the animals had evidently not starved to death, Frederick and Pilkington changed their tune and began to talk of the terrible wickedness that now flourished on Animal Farm. 🔊
← At last the day came when Snowball's plans were completed. At the Meeting on the following Sunday the question of whether or not to begin work on the windmill was to be put to the vote. 🔊
← By this time the weather had broken and the spring ploughing had begun. The shed where Snowball had drawn his plans of the windmill had been shut up and it was assumed that the plans had been rubbed off the floor. 🔊
← On the contrary, it was he who had advocated it in the beginning, and the plan which Snowball had drawn on the floor of the incubator shed had actually been stolen from among Napoleon's papers. 🔊
← One symptom of this was that they had begun to call Animal Farm by its proper name and ceased to pretend that it was called the Manor Farm. 🔊
← Snowball is to act as his guide when the attack begins. But there is worse than that. 🔊
← "I do not believe that Snowball was a traitor at the beginning," he said finally. 🔊
← At last, feeling this to be in some way a substitute for the words she was unable to find, she began to sing Beasts of England. 🔊
← They had won, but they were weary and bleeding. Slowly they began to limp back towards the farm. 🔊
← At the beginning, when the laws of Animal Farm were first formulated, the retiring age had been fixed for horses and pigs at twelve, for cows at fourteen, for dogs at nine, for sheep at seven, and for hens and geese at five. 🔊
← The farm had had a fairly successful year, but was still short of money. There were the bricks, sand, and lime for the schoolroom to be purchased, and it would also be necessary to begin saving up again for the machinery for the windmill. 🔊
← In desperation the animals began appealing to the two horses which drew the van to stop. 🔊