Animal farm / Скотный двор. Уровень 2

The fields were full of weeds, the buildings ruined, and the animals were hungry.

June came and the hay was almost ready. On Midsummer’s Eve, which was a Saturday, Mr. Jones went into Willingdon and did not come back till midday on Sunday. The workers milked the cows in the early morning and then went out. They did not feed the animals. When Mr. Jones came back he immediately went to sleep on the sofa with the newspaper over his face. When evening came, the animals were still hungry. At last they began to protest.

One of the cows broke in the door of the store-shed with her horn. Then all the animals began to eat from the bins. It was just then that Mr. Jones woke up. The next moment he and his four men stood with whips in their hands. This was too much![10 - This was too much! – Это было уже слишком!]

The hungry animals ran to their tormentors. The animals butted and kicked Jones and his men from all sides. This sudden rebellion of animals frightened the farmer and his workers a lot.

Soon the men ran away. A minute later all five of them were in the cart-track that led to the main road. The animals pursued them in triumph.

Mrs. Jones looked out of the bedroom window. She saw what happened, hurriedly took a few bags and slipped out of the farm. Moses flapped after her, he croaked loudly. Meanwhile the animals chased Jones and his men on the road and slammed the five-barred gate behind them. So Jones was expelled, and the Manor Farm was not his anymore.

For the first few minutes the animals did not believe in their good fortune[11 - good fortune – удача].

They ran round the boundaries of the farm to see that no man was there. Then they raced back to the farm buildings to wipe out the last traces of Jones’s reign.

The harness-room at the end of the stables was open. The bits, the nose-rings, the dog-chains, the cruel knives with which Mr. Jones castrated the pigs and lambs, were all on the ground. The animals threw the reins, the halters, the blinkers and the whips into the fire.

All the animals moaned when they saw the whips in flames. Snowball also threw into the fire the ribbons with which the horses’ manes and tails were usually decorated on market days.

“Ribbons,” he said, “are the man’s clothes. All animals must go naked.”

Soon the animals destroyed everything that reminded them of Mr. Jones. Napoleon then led them back to the store-shed and gave a double ration of corn to everybody.