Kitabı oku: «Скотный двор / Animal Farm», sayfa 7
The reading and writing classes, however, were a great success. By the autumn almost every animal on the farm was literate in some degree.
As for the pigs, they could already read and write perfectly. The dogs learned to read fairly well, but were not interested in reading anything except the Seven Commandments. Muriel, the goat, could read better than the dogs, and sometimes read to the others in the evenings from scraps of newspaper which she found on the rubbish heap.
Benjamin could read as well as any pig, but never exercised his faculty. He said, there was nothing worth reading. Clover learnt the whole alphabet, but could not put words together. Boxer could not get beyond the letter D. He could trace out A, B, C, D, in the dust with his great hoof, and then was staring at the letters with his ears back. Sometimes he was shaking his forelock, and trying with all his might to remember what came next. He never succeeded. On several occasions, indeed, he did learn E, F, G, H, but by the time he knew them, it was always discovered that he forgot A, B, C, and D. Finally he decided to be content with the first four letters, and wrote them out once or twice every day to refresh his memory.
Mollie refused to learn any but the six letters which spelt her own name. She formed these letters out of pieces of twig, and then decorated them with a flower or two and walked round them.
None of the other animals on the farm could get further than the letter A. It was also found that the stupider animals, such as the sheep, hens, and ducks, were unable to learn the Seven Commandments by heart. Snowball declared that the Seven Commandments could be reduced to a single maxim, namely: «Four legs good, two legs bad.» This, he said, contained the essential principle of Animalism. The birds at first objected, since they also had two legs, but Snowball proved to them that this was not so.
«A bird’s wing, comrades,» he said, «is an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation. Therefore it is a leg. The distinguishing mark of man is the HAND, the instrument with which he does all his mischief.»
The birds did not understand Snowball’s long words, but they accepted his explanation, and all the humbler animals began to learn the new maxim by heart. Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad, was inscribed on the end wall of the barn, above the Seven Commandments and in bigger letters. They liked this maxim very much, and often as they lay in the field they all started bleating «Four legs good, two legs bad! Four legs good, two legs bad!» for hours.
Napoleon took no interest in Snowball’s committees. He said that the education of the young was more important. Jessie and Bluebell gave birth to nine sturdy puppies. Napoleon took them away from their mothers. He will make himself responsible for their education. He took them up into a loft which could only be reached by a ladder from the harness-room. He kept them there in such seclusion that the rest of the farm soon forgot their existence.
What about the milk? It was mixed every day into the pigs’ mash. The early apples were now ripening, and the grass of the orchard was littered with windfalls. The animals wanted to share the apples equally; one day, however, they heard an order. All the windfalls must be collected and brought to the harness-room for the use of the pigs. At this some of the other animals murmured, but it was no use. All the pigs were in full agreement on this point, even Snowball and Napoleon. Squealer made the necessary explanations to the others.
«Comrades!» he cried. «You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (Science proved that, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs arebrainworkers16. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what will happen if we pigs fail in our duty? Jones will come back! Yes, Jones will come back! Surely, comrades,» cried Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his tail, «surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?»
He was absolutely right: no animal wanted Jones back. So the animals had no more to say. The importance of keeping the pigs in good health was obvious. So it was agreed without further argument that the milk and the windfall apples (and also the main crop of apples when they ripened) must be reserved for the pigs alone.
