← First came the hoisting of the flag. Snowball had found in the harness−room an old green tablecloth of Mrs. Jones's and had painted on it a hoof and a horn in white. 🔊
← This was run up the flagstaff in the farmhouse garden every Sunday morning. The flag was green, Snowball explained, to represent the green fields of England, while the hoof and horn signified the future Republic of the Animals which would arise when the human race had been finally overthrown. 🔊
← After the hoisting of the flag all the animals trooped into the big barn for a general assembly which was known as the Meeting. 🔊
← An impromptu celebration of the victory was held immediately. The flag was run up and Beasts of England was sung a number of times, then the sheep who had been killed was given a solemn funeral, a hawthorn bush being planted on her grave. 🔊
← These would meet in private and afterwards communicate their decisions to the others. The animals would still assemble on Sunday mornings to salute the flag, sing Beasts of England, and receive their orders for the week; but there would be no more debates. 🔊
← After the hoisting of the flag, the animals were required to file past the skull in a reverent manner before entering the barn. 🔊
← and this was sung every Sunday morning after the hoisting of the flag. But somehow neither the words nor the tune ever seemed to the animals to come up to Beasts of England. 🔊
← But when the animals saw the green flag flying, and heard the gun firing again−seven times it was fired in all−and heard the speech that Napoleon made, congratulating them on their conduct, it did seem to them after all that they had won a great victory. 🔊
← So that, what with the songs, the processions, Squealer's lists of figures, the thunder of the gun, the crowing of the cockerel, and the fluttering of the flag, they were able to forget that their bellies were empty, at least part of the time. 🔊
← And when they heard the gun booming and saw the green flag fluttering at the masthead, their hearts swelled with imperishable pride, and the talk turned always towards the old heroic days, the expulsion of Jones, the writing of the Seven Commandments, the great battles in which the human invaders had been defeated. 🔊
← This, too, would be suppressed, and the skull had already been buried. His visitors might have observed, too, the green flag which flew from the masthead. 🔊
← It would be a plain green flag from now onwards. He had only one criticism, he said, to make of Mr. Pilkington's excellent and neighbourly speech. 🔊