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?I?II?III?IV?V?VI?VII?VIII?IX?XEtext by Roderick da Rat                                                             I
MR.JONES,of the  Manor  Farm,had locked the hen-houses for the  night,but was too drunk to remember  toshut  the popholes.With the  ring of light from  his lantern dancing from  side to side,  he  lurched across theyard,kicked off his boots at the back  door,drew  himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery,and  made  his way up to bed,where Mrs.Jones was already snoring.
As  soon as the light in the bedroom went out there was  a stirring  and a fluttering all through the farmbuildings.Word had  gone round  during  the day that old Major,the prize Middle White boar,had had astrange dream  on the previous night  and wished to communicate it to  the other animals.It  had been  agreedthat  they should all  meet in  the big barn as soon as Mr.  Jones was safely out of the way.Old  Major (so he  wasalways called,though  the  name  under which he had  been exhibited was  Willingdon Beauty)was so  highlyregarded on the  farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour's  sleep in order  to hear what he had to say.
At one end of the big barn,on a sort of raised platform,Major was  already  ensconced  on his bed of straw,under a lantern which  hung  from a  beam.He was twelve years old and  had lately grown rather  stout,but hewas  still a majestic-looking pig,with a wise and  benevolent appearance in spite  of  the  fact  that his tushes  hadnever been  cut.  Before long the other  animals  began  to  arrive  and  make  themselves  comfortable  after  theirdifferent fashions.  First  came  the  three  dogs,  Bluebell,  Jessie,  and  Pincher,and  then the  pigs,  who settleddown  in  the straw immediately in  front  of the platform.The hens perched themselves on the window-sills,the  pigeons fluttered up to the rafters,the  sheep and cows lay down  behind the  pigs and began to chew thecud.The two cart-horses,Boxer  and Clover,came  in  together,walking very  slowly  and setting down  theirvast  hairy hoofs  with great care lest  there  should  be some  small animal concealed  in the  straw.Clover  was astout motherly  mare  approaching middle life,who had  never quite got her figure  back after her fourth foal.
Boxer was an enormous  beast,nearly  eighteen hands high,  and as strong as any two ordinary horses  puttogether.  A white  stripe down  his nose gave  him  a  somewhat  stupid  appearance,  and  in fact  he was not offirst-rate  intelligence,but he was  universally respected for his steadiness of  character and  tremendous powersof  work.After the  horses  came  Muriel,the  white goat,and Benjamin,the  donkey.Benjamin was the  oldestanimal on the farm,and the  worst tempered.  He seldom  talked,  and when he  did,  it  was usually to  make somecynical  remark-for  instance,he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the  flies  off,but that hewould  sooner  have had no tail and  no flies.  Alone  among the animals  on the farm he never laughed.If askedwhy,  he would say  that he  saw nothing to laugh at.Nevertheless,without  openly admitting it,  he was  devotedto  Boxer;  the two  of  them  usually spent  their  Sundays  together in the small paddock beyond  the orchard,Animal Farm Editor:zongxujian  【论坛讨论】【收藏此页】【手机阅读】【打印】【英语词典】 载入中...

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