They could not understand, they said, how even animals could bring themselves to sing such contemptible rubbish. The human beings could not contain their rage when they heard this song, though they pretended to think it merely ridiculous. Above all, the tune and even the words of Beasts of England were known everywhere. Bulls which had always been tractable suddenly turned savage, sheep broke down hedges and devoured the clover, cows kicked the pail over, hunters refused their fences and shot their riders on to the other side. 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. However, these stories were never fully believed. This was what came of rebelling against the laws of Nature, Frederick and Pilkington said. It was given out that the animals there practised cannibalism, tortured one another with red-hot horseshoes, and had their females in common.
When time passed and the animals had evidently not starved to death, Frederick and Pilkington changed their tune and began to talk of the terrible wickedness that now flourished on Animal Farm. They put it about that the animals on the Manor Farm (they insisted on calling it the Manor Farm they would not tolerate the name "Animal Farm") were perpetually fighting among themselves and were also rapidly starving to death. The whole thing would be over in a fortnight, they said. At first they pretended to laugh to scorn the idea of animals managing a farm for themselves.
Nevertheless, they were both thoroughly frightened by the rebellion on Animal Farm, and very anxious to prevent their own animals from learning too much about it. These two disliked each other so much that it was difficult for them to come to any agreement, even in defence of their own interests. Frederick, a tough, shrewd man, perpetually involved in lawsuits and with a name for driving hard bargains. The other farm, which was called Pinchfield, was smaller and better kept. Pilkington, was an easy-going gentleman farmer who spent most of his time in fishing or hunting according to the season. One of them, which was named Foxwood, was a large, neglected, old-fashioned farm, much overgrown by woodland, with all its pastures worn out and its hedges in a disgraceful condition. It was lucky that the owners of the two farms which adjoined Animal Farm were on permanently bad terms. At heart, each of them was secretly wondering whether he could not somehow turn Jones's misfortune to his own advantage. The other farmers sympathised in principle, but they did not at first give him much help. Jones had spent sitting in the taproom of the Red Lion at Willingdon, complaining to anyone who would listen of the monstrous injustice he had suffered in being turned out of his property by a pack of good-for-nothing animals. Every day Snowball and Napoleon sent out flights of pigeons whose instructions were to mingle with the animals on neighbouring farms, tell them the story of the Rebellion, and teach them the tune of Beasts of England. Animal Farm: A Fairy Story by George Orwell (Chapter 4)īy the late summer the news of what had happened on Animal Farm had spread across half the county.
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