← Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking. 🔊
← It is about this that I wish to speak to you. 🔊
← While Major was speaking four large rats had crept out of their holes and were sitting on their hindquarters, listening to him. 🔊
← The animals listened first to Napoleon, then to Snowball, and could not make up their minds which was right; indeed, they always found themselves in agreement with the one who was speaking at the moment. 🔊
← Then Napoleon stood up to reply. He said very quietly that the windmill was nonsense and that he advised nobody to vote for it, and promptly sat down again; he had spoken for barely thirty seconds, and seemed almost indifferent as to the effect he produced. 🔊
← By the time he had finished speaking, there was no doubt as to which way the vote would go. 🔊
← In a moment he was out of the door and they were after him. Too amazed and frightened to speak, all the animals crowded through the door to watch the chase. 🔊
← Some of the pigs themselves, however, were more articulate. Four young porkers in the front row uttered shrill squeals of disapproval, and all four of them sprang to their feet and began speaking at once. 🔊
← The windmill was, in fact, Napoleon's own creation. Why, then, asked somebody, had he spoken so strongly against it? 🔊
← skipping round and whisking his tail with a merry laugh. The animals were not certain what the word meant, but Squealer spoke so persuasively, and the three dogs who happened to be with him growled so threateningly, that they accepted his explanation without further questions. 🔊
← It was also more suited to the dignity of the Leader (for of late he had taken to speaking of Napoleon under the title of "Leader") to live in a house than in a mere sty. 🔊
← "Our Leader, Comrade Napoleon," announced Squealer, speaking very slowly and firmly, "has stated categorically−categorically, comrade−that Snowball was Jones's agent from the very beginning−yes, and from long before the Rebellion was ever thought of." 🔊
← The animals huddled about Clover, not speaking. The knoll where they were lying gave them a wide prospect across the countryside. 🔊
← As Clover looked down the hillside her eyes filled with tears. If she could have spoken her thoughts, it would have been to say that this was not what they had aimed at when they had set themselves years ago to work for the overthrow of the human race. 🔊
← Instead−she did not know why−they had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes. 🔊
← When he did appear, he was attended not only by his retinue of dogs but by a black cockerel who marched in front of him and acted as a kind of trumpeter, letting out a loud "cock−a−doodle−doo" before Napoleon spoke. 🔊
← Napoleon was now never spoken of simply as "Napoleon." He was always referred to in formal style as "our Leader, Comrade Napoleon," and the pigs liked to invent for him such titles as Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind, Protector of the Sheep−fold, Ducklings' Friend, and the like. 🔊
← For the time being, certainly, it had been found necessary to make a readjustment of rations (Squealer always spoke of it as a "readjustment," never as a "reduction"), but in comparison with the days of Jones, the improvement was enormous. 🔊
← Only Clover remained, and Benjamin who lay down at Boxer's side, and, without speaking, kept the flies off him with his long tail. 🔊
← "I was at his bedside at the very last. And at the end, almost too weak to speak, he whispered in my ear that his sole sorrow was to have passed on before the windmill was finished. 🔊