Animal Farm | Page 9

They
had not been milked for twenty-four hours, and their udders were almost bursting. After a little thought, the
pigs sent for buckets and milked the cows fairly successfully, their trotters being well adapted to this task.
Soon there were five buckets of frothing creamy milk at which many of the animals looked with considerable
interest.
"What is going to happen to all that milk?" said someone.
"Jones used sometimes to mix some of it in our mash," said one of the hens. Animal Farm
II 8

"Never mind the milk, comrades!" cried Napoleon, placing himself in front of the buckets. "That will be
attended to. 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 trooped down to the hayfield to begin the harvest, and when they came back in the evening it
was noticed that the milk had disappeared.
III
HOW they toiled and sweated to get the hay in! But their efforts were rewarded, for the harvest was an even
bigger success than they had hoped.
Sometimes the work was hard; the implements had been designed for human beings and not for animals, and
it was a great drawback that no animal was able to use any tool that involved standing on his hind legs. But
the pigs were so clever that they could think of a way round every difficulty. 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 had ever done. The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their
superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership. Boxer and Clover would harness
themselves to the cutter or the horse-rake (no bits or reins were needed in these days, of course) and tramp
steadily round and round the field with a pig walking behind and calling out "Gee up, comrade!" or "Whoa
back, comrade!" as the case might be. And every animal down to the humblest worked at turning the hay and
gathering it. Even the ducks and hens toiled to and fro all day in the sun, carrying tiny wisps of hay in their
beaks. In the end they finished the harvest in two days' less time than it had usually taken Jones and his men.
Moreover, it was the biggest harvest that the farm had ever seen. There was no wastage whatever; the hens
and ducks with their sharp eyes had gathered up the very last stalk. And not an animal on the farm had stolen
so much as a mouthful.
All through that summer the work of the farm went like clockwork. The animals were happy as they had
never conceived it possible to be. 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. With the worthless parasitical human beings gone, there was more for everyone to eat. There was
more leisure too, inexperienced though the animals were. They met with many difficulties-for instance, later
in the year, when they harvested the corn, they had to tread it out in the ancient style and blow away the chaff
with their breath, since the farm possessed no threshing machine-but the pigs with their cleverness and Boxer
with his tremendous muscles always pulled them through. Boxer was the admiration of everybody. He had
been 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 seemed to rest on his mighty shoulders. From morning to night he was
pushing and pulling, always at the spot where the work was