Скотный двор / Animal Farm. Джордж Оруэлл

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ rel="nofollow" href="#n_12" type="note">[12]. The Commandments were written on the tarred wall in great white letters. They ran thus:

      ccc

The Seven Commandments

      1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.

      2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.

      3. No animal shall wear clothes.

      4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.

      5. No animal shall drink alcohol.

      6. No animal shall kill any other animal.

      7. All animals are equal.

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      It was very neatly written, and except that «friend» was written «freind» and one of the «S’s» was the wrong way round[13], the spelling was correct. Snowball read it aloud for the benefit of the others. All the animals nodded in complete agreement, and the cleverer ones at once began to learn the Commandments by heart.

      «Now, comrades,» cried Snowball, throwing down the paint-brush, «to the hayfield! Let us get in the harvest more quickly than Jones and his men could do.»

      But at this moment the three cows, who seemed uneasy, began to moo. They were not milked for twenty-four hours, and their udders were almost bursting. After a little thought, the pigs sent for buckets and milked the cows successfully. Their trotters were well adapted to this task. Soon there were five buckets of frothing creamy milk. Many of the animals looked at the buckets with considerable interest.

      «What will happen to that milk?» said someone.

      «Jones sometimes mixed some of it in our mash,» said one of the hens.

      «Never mind the milk, comrades!» cried Napoleon, placing himself in front of the buckets. «That will be attended to[14]. The harvest is more important. Comrade Snowball will lead the way. I shall follow in a few minutes. Forward, comrades! The hay is waiting.»

      So the animals went to the hayfield to begin the harvest. When they came back in the evening the milk had disappeared.

      Chapter III

      How they toiled and sweated! But their efforts were rewarded, for the harvest was even bigger than they hoped.

      Sometimes the work was hard; the implements were designed for human beings and not for animals. It was a great drawback that no animal was able to use any tool to stand on his hind legs. But the pigs were so clever that they could find the way. As for the horses, they knew every inch of the field, and in fact understood the business of mowing and raking far better than Jones and his men.

      The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they assumed the leadership.

      Boxer and Clover harnessed themselves to the cutter or the horse-rake (no bits or reins, of course) and tramped steadily round and round the field. A pig was walking behind and calling out «Gee up, comrade!» or «Whoa back, comrade!»

      Every animal worked, they turned the hay and gathered it. Even the ducks and hens toiled to and fro all day in the sun. They carried tiny wisps of hay in their beaks. In the end they finished the harvest in two days’ less time than it usually took Jones and his men. Moreover, it was the biggest harvest on the farm. There was no wastage; the hens and ducks with their sharp eyes gathered up every stalk. And not an animal on the farm stole anything.

      All through that summer the work of the farm went like clockwork. The animals were happy. Every mouthful of food was their big pleasure. It was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves! The worthless parasitical human beings are gone, there was more for everyone to eat. There was more leisure too.

      They met with many difficulties – for instance, later in the year, when they harvested the corn, they treaded it out in the ancient style and blew away the chaff with their breath. But the pigs with their cleverness and Boxer with his tremendous muscles always helped them. Everybody admired Boxer. He was a hard worker even in Jones’s time, but now he seemed more like three horses than one. There were days when the entire work of the farm rested on his mighty shoulders. From morning to night he was pushing and pulling. He made an arrangement with one of the cockerels to call him in the mornings half an hour earlier than anyone else. His answer to every problem, every setback, was «I will work harder!» It was his personal motto.

      But everyone worked according to his capacity. The hens and ducks, for instance, saved five bushels of corn at the harvest by gathering up the stray grains. Nobody stole, nobody grumbled over his rations. The quarrelling and biting and jealousy which were normal features of life in the old days almost disappeared. Nobody shirked – or almost nobody.

      Mollie, it was true, did not like to get up early in the mornings, and was always ready to leave work early on the ground when was a stone in her hoof. And the behaviour of the cat was peculiar. It was soon noticed that when there was work the cat was always absent. She could vanish for hours, and then reappear at meal-times, or in the evening after work. But she always made such excellent excuses, and purred so affectionately, that it was impossible not to believe in her good intentions.

      Old Benjamin, the donkey, seemed quite unchanged since the Rebellion. He did his work slowly as he was doing it in Jones’s time. He was never shirking and never volunteering for extra work either. About the Rebellion and its results he expressed no opinion. When the others asked him whether he was happy or not, he said only «Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey».

      On Sundays there was no work. Breakfast was an hour later than usual, and after breakfast there was a ceremony. First came the hoisting of the flag. Snowball found in the harness-room an old green tablecloth of Mrs. Jones’s and painted on it a hoof and a horn in white. This was the flag in the farmhouse garden. The flag was green, Snowball explained, to represent the green fields of England, while the hoof and horn signified the future Republic of the Animals. This Republic will arise when the human race is finally overthrown. After the hoisting of the flag all the animals trooped into the big barn for a general assembly which was known as the Meeting. Here they planned the work of the next week and put forward some resolutions. It was always the pigs who put forward the resolutions. The other animals understood how to vote, but could never think of any resolutions of their own.

      Snowball and Napoleon were by far the most active in the debates. But it was noticed that these two were never in agreement. Whatever suggestion either of them made, the other was against it. Even when it was resolved to set aside the small paddock behind the orchard as a home of rest for the old animals, there was a stormy debate over the correct retiring age[15] for each class of animal. The Meeting always ended with the singing of ‘Beasts of England’.

      The harness-room was a headquarters for the pigs. Here, in the evenings, they studied blacksmithing, carpentering, and other necessary arts from books which they brought out of the farmhouse. Snowball also organized the other animals into Animal Committees. He was indefatigable at this. He formed the Egg Production Committee for the hens, the Clean Tails League for the cows, the Wild Comrades’ Re-education Committee (the object of this was to tame the rats and rabbits), the Whiter Wool Movement for the sheep, and various others, besides classes in reading and writing. On the whole, these projects were a failure. The attempt to tame the wild creatures, for instance, broke down almost immediately. If someone treated the wild animals with generosity, they simply СКАЧАТЬ