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Animal farm / Скотный двор. Уровень 2
Animal farm / Скотный двор. Уровень 2
© Матвеев С.А., адаптация текста, комментарии и словарь
© ООО «Издательство АСТ», 2022
Chapter I
Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm[1], locked the hen-houses for the night. But he was very drunk and forgot to shut the pop-holes[2]. He took a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery. Then he went to bed, where Mrs. Jones slept.
When the light in the bedroom went out[3] there was a fluttering in the farm buildings. Old Major, the prize boar, had a strange dream and wished to tell it the other animals. The animals will meet in the big barn when Mr. Jones goes away. Old Major (his real name was Willingdon Beauty) was a very respectable person on the farm. Everyone was ready to lose an hour’s sleep in order to listen to him.
At one end of the big barn, on a raised platform, Major had his bed of straw, under a lantern. The lantern hung from a beam. He was twelve years old and was stout. But he was still a mighty pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance. And he had sharp tushes. Soon the other animals began to arrive and sit. First came the three dogs, Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher, and then the pigs. They sat down in the straw in front of the platform. The hens sat on the window-sills, the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters. The sheep and cows lay down behind the pigs and began to chew the cud.
The two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover, came in together. They walked very slowly with great care. Clover was a stout motherly mare. Boxer was an enormous beast. He was nearly eighteen hands high, and he was as strong as two ordinary horses. A white stripe on his nose gave him a stupid appearance. In fact, he was not very intelligent. But he was steady and hard-working.
After the horses came Muriel with Benjamin. Muriel was a white goat, and Benjamin was a donkey. Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm. He seldom talked. When he talked, he usually made cynical remarks. For instance, he said:
“God gave him a tail to keep the flies off[4], but I prefer not to have the tail and the flies”.
He never laughed among the animals on the farm. He saw nothing to laugh at. Nevertheless, he was devoted to Boxer. They usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard. They grazed side by side and never spoke to each other.
The two horses lay down. After that some ducklings, which lost their mother, came into the barn. They wandered from side to side to find some place. Clover made a wall round them with her great foreleg. So the ducklings sat down inside it and promptly fell asleep.
Soon came Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones’s trap. She chewed some of sugar. She took a place near the front and began to flirt her white mane. She wanted to show her red ribbons.
Last of all came the cat. The cat looked round, as usual, for the warmest place. Finally the cat sat down between Boxer and Clover. There she purred contentedly throughout Major’s speech. Actually, she did not listen to a word of his speech.