Chapter 18 Chapter Sixteen The Windmill Has Been in Ruins

About this time all the pigs suddenly moved into the owner's house and made it their own.Once again the animals seemed to remember that a resolution had been passed in the early days against this practice.This time it was Squealer who convinced everyone that this was not the case.Squealer said the pigs were the brains of the farm, and they absolutely needed a quiet place to work.For a Leader (Squealer had recently mentioned Napoleon's habit of using the title "Leader"), living in a house was more suitable for his dignified status than living in a pigsty.That being said, some animals are still shocked to hear that pigs not only eat in the kitchen, not only use the living room as their recreation room, but also sleep in the bed.Boxer, as usual, muttered "Napoleon was always right" and let it go.But Clover thought he did remember that there had been a ban on sleeping in the bed.She ran to the gable at one end of the barn, looked at the seven commandments written on it, and tried to figure out if there was this one on it like a riddle.Finding she could read only a few letters, she brought Muriel the goat.

"Muriel," she said, "you read to me the Fourth Commandment. Does it mean no sleeping in bed?" It took Muriel a lot of effort to spell it out. "It says: 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with a sheet'," Muriel read at last. It was so strange that Clover didn't remember that the fourth commandment mentioned sheets.But since it says so on the wall, it must have been so.Squealer was passing just then, with two or three dogs with him.Squealer told the whole thing with ease. "Comrades," he said, "you must have heard, then, that we pigs now sleep in farmer's beds? Why can't we sleep in beds? You don't think there was ever a rule against sleeping in beds." Right? A bed simply means a place to sleep. From this point of view, a pile of straw in a shack is also a bed. The regulations prohibit the use of sheets, because sheets are a human invention. Removed and replaced with blankets. It is actually quite comfortable to use blankets. But I can tell you this, comrades, this kind of bed is not comfortable enough for us pigs, because all the brain work on the farm is done by us Do. Comrades, I suppose you won't tell us to get some rest? Would you like to see us overworked and unable to perform our duties? Surely you don't want to call Jones back?"

The animals assured him at once that they had no intention of this.In this way, the matter of the pig sleeping on the house bed was no longer talked about by animals.When the animals were told a few days later that the pigs would rise an hour later each day than the other animals, no one complained. After autumn came, although the animals were exhausted, they were still very happy.They have worked hard for a year, and after selling part of the hay and corn, although there is not enough grain for the winter, they have built half of the windmill to make up for everything.After the autumn harvest, the weather has been sunny and dry, and the animals are working even harder than before.From morning till night, they dragged the stones about the yard, thinking that the hard work was worth it and that the windmill wall could be raised another foot.Boxer even got up at night sometimes, and worked alone for an hour or two in the bright moonlight.When work was over, the animals used to walk around the half-built project, admiring the straight, solid walls, and being amazed and delighted at being able to build such a magnificent project.Only Benjamin showed no enthusiasm for the windmill, but he said nothing more than his usual cryptic remarks about "asses live a long time."

November came, and a howling southwest wind blew.Work had to be interrupted because the continuous rain could no longer mix the concrete.Finally one night the wind blew so hard that all the buildings on the farm shook and some tiles were blown off the roof of the big barn.The chicks seemed to hear gunshots in the distance at the same time in a dream, and they woke up in fright, clucking and screaming.In the early morning of the next day, the animals came out of their sheds and nests, and found that the flagpole had been blown down by the strong wind, and an elm tree at the end of the orchard had been uprooted like a radish.Then they discovered another thing, every animal let out a cry of despair from its throat.It turned out that they saw an extremely terrible sight-the windmill had become a ruin.

The animals rushed to the scene of the accident in unison.Napoleon, who usually walks slowly, rushed to the front.Isn't it? The windmill has collapsed, and the result of their months of hard work has been razed to the ground.The stones they worked so hard to break and transport were thrown everywhere on the ground.The animals were too frightened to speak, but stood there in misery, staring blankly at the pile of fallen stones.Napoleon paced up and down without saying a word, occasionally sniffing the ground.His tail was becoming more and more rigid, and it was twitching back and forth like a convulsion.This shows that he is engaged in intense thinking activities.Suddenly, as if he had made up his mind, he stood still.