The mechanical details came mostly from three books which belonged to Mr. Jones: 'One Thousand Useful Things to Do About the House’, 'Every Man Is A Bricklayer’, and 'Electricity for Beginners’.
Why do we live in this miserable condition? Because men steal the results of our labour. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. The key is a single word – Man.
“'Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler[36], Willingdon. Dealer in Hides and Bone-Meal. Kennels Supplied.’ Do you not understand what that means? They will take Boxer to the knacker’s[37]!”
A cry of horror burst from all the animals. At this moment the man on the box whipped up his horses and the van moved out of the yard. All the animals followed. They cried and wept.
The van began to go faster. Clover tried to gallop.
“Boxer!” she cried. “Boxer! Boxer! Boxer!”
And just at this moment, Boxer’s face appeared at the small window at the back of the van.
“Boxer!” cried Clover in a terrible voice. “Boxer! Get out! Get out quickly! They want to kill you!”
All the animals cried “Get out, Boxer, get out!” But the van went fast and drew away from them. It was uncertain whether Boxer understood what Clover said. But a moment later his face disappeared from the window. Then the animals heard the sound of a tremendous drumming of hoofs inside the van. Boxer tried to escape. But alas! His strength left him. In a few moments the sound of drumming hoofs died away.
In desperation the animals began to appeal to the two horses which drew the van to stop
Even in the farmhouse, Napoleon inhabited separate apartments from the others. He took his meals alone, and always ate from the expensive plates from the glass cupboard in the drawing-room. Soon the news same. The gun will be fired every year on Napoleon’s birthday, as well as on the other two anniversaries.
Napoleon was no more just “Napoleon.” He was “our Leader, Comrade Napoleon”. 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 so on. In his speeches, Squealer talked with the tears on his cheeks of Napoleon’s wisdom, the goodness of his heart, and his deep love to all animals everywhere, even and especially the unhappy animals who still lived in ignorance and slavery on other farms.
Whatever went wrong, of course, Snowball was the reason. If a window was broken or a drain was blocked up, someone said that Snowball came in the night and did it. When the key of the store-shed was lost, the whole farm was convinced that Snowball threw it down the well. They believed this even after they found the key under a sack of meal. The cows declared unanimously that Snowball crept into their stalls and milked them in their sleep. They said that the rats, which were troublesome that winter, were Snowball’s friends.
