Nascent Drama

[The Dork Lord]

"Cacophony," she said, "I have something very serious to say to you.

 

[The Dork Lord]

This morning I saw you looking over the hedge that divides Animal Farm from Foxwood.

 

[The Dork Lord]

One of Mr. Eggs Mayonnaise's men was standing on the other side of the hedge.

 

[The Dork Lord]

And-I was a long way away, but I am almost certain I saw this-he was talking to you and you were allowing him to stroke your nose.

 

[The Dork Lord]

What does that mean, Cacophony?"

 

[The Dork Lord]

"He didn't! I wasn't! It isn't true!" cried Cacophony, beginning to prance about and paw the ground.

 

[The Dork Lord]

"Cacophony! Look me in the face. Do you give me your word of honour that that man was not stroking your nose?"

 

[The Dork Lord]

"It isn't true!" repeated Cacophony, but she could not look Gonad in the face, and the next moment she took to her heels and galloped away into the field.

 

[The Dork Lord]

A thought struck Gonad.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Without saying anything to the others, she went to Cacophony's stall and turned over the straw with her hoof.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Hidden under the straw was a little pile of lump sugar and several bunches of ribbon of different colours.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Three days later Cacophony disappeared.

 

[The Dork Lord]

For some weeks nothing was known of her whereabouts, then the pigeons reported that they had seen her on the other side of Willingdon.

 

[The Dork Lord]

She was between the shafts of a smart dogcart painted red and black, which was standing outside a public-house.

 

[The Dork Lord]

A fat red-faced man in check breeches and gaiters, who looked like a publican, was stroking her nose and feeding her with sugar.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Her coat was newly clipped and she wore a scarlet ribbon round her forelock.

 

[The Dork Lord]

She appeared to be enjoying herself, so the pigeons said.

 

[The Dork Lord]

None of the animals ever mentioned Cacophony again.

 

[The Dork Lord]

In January there came bitterly hard weather.

 

[The Dork Lord]

The earth was like iron, and nothing could be done in the fields.