On the third Sunday after Snowball's expulsion (驱逐), the animals were somewhat surprised to hear Napoleon announce that the windmill was to be built after all.
He did not give any reason for having changed his mind, but merely warned the animals that this extra task would mean very hard work, it might even be necessary to reduce their rations (配给量).
The plans, however, had all been prepared, down to the last detail. A special committee of pigs had been at work upon them for the past three weeks.
The building of the windmill, with various other improvements, was expected to take two years.
That evening Squealer explained privately to the other animals that Napoleon had never in reality been opposed to the windmill.
On the contrary, it was he who had advocated it in the beginning, and the plan which Snowball had drawn on the floor of the incubator (孵化) shed had actually been stolen from among Napoleon's papers.
The windmill was, in fact, Napoleon's own creation. Why, then, asked somebody, had he spoken so strongly against it? Here Squealer looked very sly (狡猾的). That, he said, was Comrade Napoleon's cunning.
He had seemed to oppose the windmill, simply as a manoeuvre to get rid of Snowball, who was a dangerous character and a bad influence. Now that Snowball was out of the way, the plan could go forward without his interference (干扰).
This, said Squealer, was something called tactics (战术). He repeated a number of times, "Tactics, comrades, tactics!" skipping round and whisking his tail with a merry (愉快的) laugh.
The animals were not certain what the word meant, but Squealer spoke so persuasively, and the three dogs who happened to be with him growled so threateningly, that they accepted his explanation without further questions.
All that year the animals worked like slaves.
But they were happy in their work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a pack of idle (懒惰的), thieving human beings.{1}
Throughout the spring and summer they worked a sixty−hour week, and in August Napoleon announced that there would be work on Sunday afternoons as well.
This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half. Even so, it was found necessary to leave certain tasks undone.
The harvest was a little less successful than in the previous year, and two fields which should have been sown (播种) with roots in the early summer were not sown because the ploughing (耕) had not been completed early enough.
It was possible to foresee that the coming winter would be a hard one.
The windmill presented unexpected difficulties. There was a good quarry (采石场) of limestone (石灰岩) on the farm, and plenty of sand and cement (水泥) had been found in one of the outhouses, so that all the materials for building were at hand.
But the problem the animals could not at first solve was how to break up the stone into pieces of suitable size.
There seemed no way of doing this except with picks (鹤嘴锄) and crowbars (铁橇), which no animal could use, because no animal could stand on his hind legs.
Only after weeks of vain (徒劳的) effort did the right idea occur to somebody−namely, to utilise the force of gravity. Huge boulders (巨石), far too big to be used as they were, were lying all over the bed of the quarry.{2}
The animals lashed (捆) ropes round these, and then all together, cows, horses, sheep, any animal that could lay hold of the rope−even the pigs sometimes joined in at critical moments−
they dragged them with desperate slowness up the slope to the top of the quarry, where they were toppled (倒下) over the edge (边缘), to shatter to pieces below.{4}
Transporting the stone when it was once broken was comparatively (相对地) simple. The horses carried it off in cart−loads, the sheep dragged single blocks, even Muriel and Benjamin yoked (给…上轭) themselves into an old governess−cart (小型二轮马车) and did their share.
By late summer a sufficient store of stone had accumulated (累积), and then the building began, under the superintendence (监督) of the pigs.
But it was a slow, laborious (艰难的) process. Frequently it took a whole day of exhausting effort to drag a single boulder to the top of the quarry (采矿场), and sometimes when it was pushed over the edge it failed to break.
Nothing could have been achieved without Boxer, whose strength seemed equal to that of all the rest of the animals put together.
When the boulder began to slip and the animals cried out in despair at finding themselves dragged down the hill, it was always Boxer who strained himself against the rope and brought the boulder to a stop.{4}
To see him toiling up the slope inch by inch, his breath coming fast, the tips of his hoofs clawing (抓) at the ground, and his great sides matted with sweat, filled everyone with admiration (钦佩).
Clover warned him sometimes to be careful not to overstrain himself, but Boxer would never listen to her. His two slogans, "I will work harder" and "Napoleon is always right," seemed to him a sufficient answer to all problems. He had made arrangements with the cockerel (小公鸡) to call him three−quarters of an hour earlier in the mornings instead of half an hour.
And in his spare moments, of which there were not many nowadays, he would go alone to the quarry, collect a load of broken stone, and drag it down to the site of the windmill unassisted.
The animals were not badly off throughout that summer, in spite of the hardness of their work. If they had no more food than they had had in Jones's day, at least they did not have less.
The advantage of only having to feed themselves, and not having to support five extravagant (奢侈的) human beings as well, was so great that it would have taken a lot of failures to outweigh it.{5}
And in many ways the animal method of doing things was more efficient and saved labour. Such jobs as weeding (除草), for instance, could be done with a thoroughness impossible to human beings.
And again, since no animal now stole, it was unnecessary to fence off pasture from arable (适于耕种的) land, which saved a lot of labour on the upkeep of hedges and gates. Nevertheless, as the summer wore on, various unforeseen shortages began to make themselves felt.
There was need of paraffin (煤油) oil, nails (钉子), string, dog biscuits, and iron for the horses' shoes, none of which could be produced on the farm. Later there would also be need for seeds and artificial manures, besides various tools and, finally, the machinery for the windmill. How these were to be procured, no one was able to imagine.
One Sunday morning, when the animals assembled to receive their orders, Napoleon announced that he had decided upon a new policy.
From now onwards Animal Farm would engage in trade with the neighbouring farms: not, of course, for any commercial purpose, but simply in order to obtain certain materials which were urgently necessary.
The needs of the windmill must override (压倒) everything else, he said.
He was therefore making arrangements to sell a stack of hay (干草) and part of the current year's wheat (小麦) crop, and later on, if more money were needed, it would have to be made up by the sale of eggs, for which there was always a market in Willingdon.
The hens, said Napoleon, should welcome this sacrifice as their own special contribution towards the building of the windmill.
