← Even the stupidest of them had already picked up the tune and a few of the words, and as for the clever ones, such as the pigs and dogs, they had the entire song by heart within a few minutes. 🔊
← 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. 🔊
← With some difficulty (for it is not easy for a pig to balance himself on a ladder) Snowball climbed up and set to work, with Squealer a few rungs below him holding the paint−pot. 🔊
← The harvest is more important. Comrade Snowball will lead the way. I shall follow in a few minutes. 🔊
← Then he put on an extra spurt and, with a few inches to spare, slipped through a hole in the hedge and was seen no more. 🔊
← They could only be traced for a few yards, but appeared to lead to a hole in the hedge. 🔊
← The potatoes had become soft and discoloured, and only a few were edible. For days at a time the animals had nothing to eat but chaff and mangels. 🔊
← The pigs' ears were bleeding, the dogs had tasted blood, and for a few moments they appeared to go quite mad. 🔊
← A FEW days later, when the terror caused by the executions had died down, some of the animals remembered−or thought they remembered−that the Sixth Commandment decreed "No animal shall kill any other animal." 🔊
← After a few minutes the men were seen to be running in all directions. Then there was a deafening roar. 🔊
← In the general rejoicings the unfortunate affair of the banknotes was forgotten. It was a few days later than this that the pigs came upon a case of whisky in the cellars of the farmhouse. 🔊
← But a few days later Muriel, reading over the Seven Commandments to herself, noticed that there was yet another of them which the animals had remembered wrong. 🔊
← The sheep were the greatest devotees of the Spontaneous Demonstration, and if anyone complained (as a few animals sometimes did, when no pigs or dogs were near) that they wasted time and meant a lot of standing about in the cold, the sheep were sure to silence him with a tremendous bleating of "Four legs good, two legs bad!" 🔊
← on his lips. The wounds on Snowball's back, which a few of the animals still remembered to have seen, had been inflicted by Napoleon's teeth. 🔊
← And sure enough, the rumour was true. A few minutes later two pigeons came racing in with the news: "Boxer has fallen! 🔊
← He was trying to kick his way out. The time had been when a few kicks from Boxer's hoofs would have smashed the van to matchwood. 🔊
← And in a few days' time the pigs intended to hold a memorial banquet in Boxer's honour. 🔊
← Snowball was forgotten. Boxer was forgotten, except by the few who had known him. Clover was an old stout mare now, stiff in the joints and with a tendency to rheumy eyes. 🔊
← But before doing so, there were a few words that he felt it incumbent upon him to say. 🔊
← When the cheering had died down, Napoleon, who had remained on his feet, intimated that he too had a few words to say. 🔊