With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he **lurched** across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the **barrel** in the **scullery**, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs.Jones was already snoring.

The hens perched themselves on the window-sills, the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters, the sheep and cows lay down behind the pigs and began to chew the cud.

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.

I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die,I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired.

 Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it?

Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings?

"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits.

With one accord, though nothing of the kind had been planned beforehand, they flung themselves upon their tormentors.


Mrs. Jones looked out of the bedroom window, saw what was happening, hurriedly flung a few possessions into a carpet bag, and slipped out of the farm by another way.

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 sang Beasts of England from end to end seven times running, and after that they settled down for the night and slept as they had never slept before.

In the ecstasy of that thought they gambolled round and round, they hurled themselves into the air in great leaps of excitement. 

These Seven Commandments would now be inscribed on the wall; they would form an unalterable law by which all the animals on Animal Farm must live for ever after.

How they toiled and sweated to get the hay in!

And not an animal on the farm had stolen so much as a mouthful. 

 Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master. 

 Breakfast was an hour later than usual, and after breakfast there was a ceremony which was observed every week without fail.

But it was noticed that these two were never in agreement: whatever suggestion either of them made, the other could be counted on to oppose it. Even when it was resolved—a thing no one could object to in itself—to set aside the small paddock behind the orchard as a home of rest for animals who were past work, there was a stormy debate over the correct retiring age for each class of animal. 

The distinguishing mark of Man is the hand, the instrument with which he does all his mischief."

Napoleon took no interest in Snowball's committees. He said that the education of the young was more important than anything that could be done for those who were already grown up.

The animals had assumed as a matter of course that these would be shared out equally; one day, however, the order went forth that all the windfalls were to be collected and brought to the harness-room for the use of the pigs. 

Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty?

At heart, each of them was secretly wondering whether he could not somehow turn Jones's misfortune to his own advantage.

Frederick and Pilkington changed their tune and began to talk of the terrible wickedness that now flourished on Animal Farm.

Rumours of a wonderful farm, where the human beings had been turned out and the animals managed their own affairs, continued to circulate in vague and distorted forms, and throughout that year a wave of rebelliousness ran through the countryside.

It had come to be accepted that the pigs, who were manifestly cleverer than the other animals, should decide all questions of farm policy, though their decisions had to be ratified by a majority vote. 

But of all their controversies, none was so bitter as the one that took place over the windmill.

With his books held open by a stone, and with a piece of chalk gripped between the knuckles of his trotter, he would move rapidly to and fro, drawing in line after line and uttering little whimpers of excitement.

With his books held open by a stone, and with a piece of chalk gripped between the knuckles of his trotter, he would move rapidly to and fro, drawing in line after line and uttering little whimpers of excitement.

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.

They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws.

In future all questions relating to the working of the farm would be settled by a special committee of pigs, presided over by himself. 

The animals were not badly off throughout that summer, in spite of the hardness of their work. If they had no more food than they had had in Jones's day, at least they did not have less.

Still, it had been decided to build the walls three feet thick this time instead of eighteen inches as before, which meant collecting much larger quantities of stone. 

Every night, it was said, he came creeping in under cover of darkness and performed all kinds of mischief. 

 It seemed to them as though Snowball were some kind of invisible influence, pervading the air about them and menacing them with all kinds of dangers.

A few days later, when the terror caused by the executions had died down, some of the animals remembered—or thought they remembered—that the Sixth Commandment decreed "No animal shall kill any other animal."

As the summer wore on, and the windmill neared completion, the rumours of an impending treacherous attack grew stronger and stronger.

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.