← They were so delighted with the song that they sang it right through five times in succession, and might have continued singing it all night if they had not been interrupted. 🔊
← And so, almost before they knew what was happening, the Rebellion had been successfully carried through: Jones was expelled, and the Manor Farm was theirs. 🔊
← 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. 🔊
← But the pigs were so clever that they could think of a way round every difficulty. 🔊
← And not an animal on the farm had stolen so much as a mouthful. All through that summer the work of the farm went like clockwork. 🔊
← The birds at first objected, since it seemed to them that they also had two legs, but Snowball proved to them that this was not so. 🔊
← But of all their controversies, none was so bitter as the one that took place over the windmill. 🔊
← And thereafter, he declared, so much labour would be saved that the animals would only need to work three days a week. 🔊
← They had all the more reason for doing so because the news of their defeat had spread across the countryside and made the animals on the neighbouring farms more restive than ever. 🔊
← There was a good quarry of limestone on the farm, and plenty of sand and cement had been found in one of the outhouses, so that all the materials for building were at hand. 🔊
← Now when Squealer described the scene so graphically, it seemed to the animals that they did remember it. 🔊
← They were all slain on the spot. And so the tale of confessions and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon's feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones. 🔊
← Never had the farm−and with a kind of surprise they remembered that it was their own farm, every inch of it their own property−appeared to the animals so desirable a place. 🔊
← All these rumours had probably originated with Snowball and his agents. It now appeared that Snowball was not, after all, hiding on Pinchfield Farm, and in fact had never been there in his life: he was living−in considerable luxury, so it was said−at Foxwood, and had in reality been a pensioner of Pilkington for years past. 🔊
← But doubtless it had been worse in the old days. They were glad to believe so. 🔊
← 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. 🔊
← There were many more creatures on the farm now, though the increase was not so great as had been expected in earlier years. 🔊
← As for the others, their life, so far as they knew, was as it had always been. 🔊
← But before doing so, there were a few words that he felt it incumbent upon him to say. 🔊
← If so, they would perhaps have noted that the white hoof and horn with which it had previously been marked had now been removed. 🔊