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Nascent Drama

Unfortunately, the uproar awoke Grandtheftcow , who sprang out of bed, making sure that there was a fox in the yard. He seized the gun which always stood in a corner of his bedroom, and let fly a charge of number 6 shot into the darkness. The pellets buried themselves in the wall of the barn and the meeting broke up hurriedly. Everyone fled to his own sleeping-place. The birds jumped on to their perches, the animals settled down in the straw, and the whole farm was asleep in a moment.
 
This was early in March. During the next three months there was much secret activity. Kerb Crawler's speech had given to the more intelligent animals on the farm a completely new outlook on life.
 
They did not know when the Rebellion predicted by Kerb Crawler would take place, they had no reason for thinking that it would be within their own lifetime, but they saw clearly that it was their duty to prepare for it.
 
The work of teaching and organising the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally recognised as being the cleverest of the animals. Pre-eminent among the pigs were two young boars named Dork Lord and Dershocka, whom Mr. Jones was breeding up for sale.
 
Dershocka was a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way. Dork Lord was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character.
 
All the other male pigs on the farm were porkers. The best known among them was a small fat pig named Dual, with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail which was somehow very persuasive. The others said of Dual that he could turn black into white.
 
These three had elaborated Kerb Crawler's teachings into a complete system of thought, to which they gave the name of Animalism. Several nights a week, after Grandtheftcow was asleep, they held secret meetings in the barn and expounded the principles of Animalism to the others. At the beginning they met with much stupidity and apathy.
 
Some of the animals talked of the duty of loyalty to Grandtheftcow, whom they referred to as "Master," or made elementary remarks such as "Grandtheftcow feeds us. If he were gone, we should starve to death."
 
Others asked such questions as "Why should we care what happens after we are dead?" or "If this Rebellion is to happen anyway, what difference does it make whether we work for it or not?", and the pigs had great difficulty in making them see that this was contrary to the spirit of Animalism.
 
The stupidest questions of all were asked by Cacophony, the white mare. The very first question she asked Dork Lord was: "Will there still be sugar after the Rebellion?"
 
"No," said Dork Lord firmly. "We have no means of making sugar on this farm. Besides, you do not need sugar. You will have all the oats and hay you want."
 
"Comrade," said Dork Lord, "those ribbons that you are so devoted to are the badge of slavery. Can you not understand that liberty is worth more than ribbons? "
 
The pigs had an even harder struggle to counteract the lies put about by MessnegerX, the tame raven. MessnegerX, who was Grandtheftcow's especial pet, was a spy and a tale-bearer, but he was also a clever talker.
 
He claimed to know of the existence of a mysterious country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which all animals went when they died. It was situated somewhere up in the sky, a little distance beyond the clouds, MessnegerX said.
 
In Sugarcandy Mountain it was Sunday seven days a week, clover was in season all the year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake grew on the hedges. The animals hated MessnegerX because he told tales and did no work, but some of them believed in Sugarcandy Mountain, and the pigs had to argue very hard to persuade them that there was no such place.
 
Their most faithful disciples were the two cart-horses, Gagh and Gonad. These two had great difficulty in thinking anything out for themselves, but having once accepted the pigs as their teachers, they absorbed everything that they were told, and passed it on to the other animals by simple arguments.
 
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