← The work of teaching and organising the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally recognised as being the cleverest of the animals. 🔊
← This was more than the hungry animals could bear. With one accord, though nothing of the kind had been planned beforehand, they flung themselves upon their tormentors. 🔊
← 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. 🔊
← As the human beings approached the farm buildings, Snowball launched his first attack. All the pigeons, to the number of thirty−five, flew to and fro over the men's heads and muted upon them from mid−air; and while the men were dealing with this, the geese, who had been hiding behind the hedge, rushed out and pecked viciously at the calves of their legs. 🔊
← "Comrades," he said, "I trust that every animal here appreciates the sacrifice that Comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labour upon himself. 🔊
← The plans, however, had all been prepared, down to the last detail. A special committee of pigs had been at work upon them for the past three weeks. 🔊
← How these were to be procured, no one was able to imagine. One Sunday morning, when the animals assembled to receive their orders, Napoleon announced that he had decided upon a new policy. 🔊
← He intended to take the whole burden upon his own shoulders. A Mr. Whymper, a solicitor living in Willingdon, had agreed to act as intermediary between Animal Farm and the outside world, and would visit the farm every Monday morning to receive his instructions. 🔊
← To the amazement of everybody, three of them flung themselves upon Boxer. 🔊
← Napoleon now called upon them to confess their crimes. They were the same four pigs as had protested when Napoleon abolished the Sunday Meetings. 🔊
← Even in the farmhouse, it was said, Napoleon inhabited separate apartments from the others. He took his meals alone, with two dogs to wait upon him, and always ate from the Crown Derby dinner service which had been in the glass cupboard in the drawing−room. 🔊
← Frederick had wanted to pay for the timber with something called a cheque, which, it seemed, was a piece of paper with a promise to pay written upon it. 🔊
← Napoleon called the animals together immediately and in a terrible voice pronounced the death sentence upon Frederick. 🔊
← The sight of their dead comrades stretched upon the grass moved some of them to tears. 🔊
← You do not appreciate, comrade, the mighty thing that we have done. The enemy was in occupation of this very ground that we stand upon. 🔊
← It was announced that the battle would be called the Battle of the Windmill, and that Napoleon had created a new decoration, the Order of the Green Banner, which he had conferred upon himself. 🔊
← 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. 🔊
← They could not remember. There was nothing with which they could compare their present lives: they had nothing to go upon except Squealer's lists of figures, which invariably demonstrated that everything was getting better and better. 🔊
← But before doing so, there were a few words that he felt it incumbent upon him to say. 🔊
← They had been nervous about the effects upon their own animals, or even upon their human employees. 🔊