Neighboring Farmers Visit

Neighboring farmers, including Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood, were invited to Animal Farm for an inspection tour. They arrived in a number of dog-carts and were shown all over the farm, expressing great admiration for everything they saw, especially the windmill. The ordinary animals, who were weeding the turnip field, worked diligently, hardly raising their faces from the ground, not knowing whether to be more frightened of the pigs or of the human visitors.

That evening, loud laughter and bursts of singing came from the farmhouse, drawing the animals to the garden. Peering through the dining-room window, they saw the pigs and farmers seated around a long table, playing cards and drinking beer. Mr. Pilkington rose to propose a toast. He declared that the lower animals on Animal Farm did more work and received less food than any animals in the county, and that there was no clash of interests between pigs and humans. He ended with a joke: "If you have your lower animals to contend with, we have our lower classes!" Napoleon, gratified, responded with a short speech. He announced that the farm would henceforth be known as "The Manor Farm," that the custom of addressing one another as "Comrade" was to be suppressed, that the green flag would be changed to plain green, and that the skull of Old Major, which had been used in Sunday ceremonies, had already been buried. He gave a toast to the prosperity of The Manor Farm.

The animals outside watched in silence as the pigs and humans drank and cheered. Then a violent quarrel broke out: Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously. Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and the animals realized that the faces of the pigs had become indistinguishable from those of the humans. It was impossible to say which was which.