← He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark−for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies. 🔊
← Moses sprang off his perch and flapped after her, croaking loudly. Meanwhile the animals had chased Jones and his men out on to the road and slammed the five−barred gate behind them. 🔊
← This was just what Snowball had intended. As soon as they were well inside the yard, the three horses, the three cows, and the rest of the pigs, who had been lying in ambush in the cowshed, suddenly emerged in their rear, cutting them off. 🔊
← "Where is Mollie?" exclaimed somebody. Mollie in fact was missing. For a moment there was great alarm; it was feared that the men might have harmed her in some way, or even carried her off with them. 🔊
← She had taken to flight as soon as the gun went off. And when the others came back from looking for her, it was to find that the stable−lad, who in fact was only stunned, had already recovered and made off. 🔊
← 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. 🔊
← The animals were not badly off throughout that summer, in spite of the hardness of their work. 🔊
← Boxer passed it off as usual with "Napoleon is always right!", but Clover, who thought she remembered a definite ruling against beds, went to the end of the barn and tried to puzzle out the Seven Commandments which were inscribed there. 🔊
← Finally there came a night when the gale was so violent that the farm buildings rocked on their foundations and several tiles were blown off the roof of the barn. 🔊
← From now onwards I shall get up a full hour earlier in the mornings." And he moved off at his lumbering trot and made for the quarry. 🔊
← All relations with Foxwood had been broken off; insulting messages had been sent to Pilkington. 🔊
← "What victory, comrade? Have we not driven the enemy off our soil−the sacred soil of Animal Farm? " 🔊
← BOXER'S split hoof was a long time in healing. They had started the rebuilding of the windmill the day after the victory celebrations were ended. Boxer refused to take even a day off work, and made it a point of honour not to let it be seen that he was in pain. 🔊
← Now that the small field beyond the orchard had been set aside for barley, it was rumoured that a corner of the large pasture was to be fenced off and turned into a grazing−ground for superannuated animals. 🔊
← A stump of hay and part of the potato crop were sold off, and the contract for eggs was increased to six hundred a week, so that that year the hens barely hatched enough chicks to keep their numbers at the same level. 🔊
← Only Clover remained, and Benjamin who lay down at Boxer's side, and, without speaking, kept the flies off him with his long tail. 🔊
← In the evenings she lay in his stall and talked to him, while Benjamin kept the flies off him. 🔊
← "Quick, quick!" he shouted. "Come at once! They're taking Boxer away!" Without waiting for orders from the pig, the animals broke off work and raced back to the farm buildings. 🔊
← It was as though the world had turned upside−down. Then there came a moment when the first shock had worn off and when, in spite of everything−in spite of their terror of the dogs, and of the habit, developed through long years, of never complaining, never criticising, no matter what happened−they might have uttered some word of protest. 🔊
← The pigs appeared completely at ease in their chairs. The company had been enjoying a game of cards but had broken off for the moment, evidently in order to drink a toast. 🔊