The First Attempt
It was a boy. Pawson and Cannie were parents of a male piglet.
"I still think we should name him Jax," said Pawson, the father. "It's a strong name. He needs to be strong!"
"He'll never reach his potential on this wretched place called 'Manor Farm', that's for sure! We might as well give him a cute name… like Morrel!" retorted Cannie, the mother.
"Morrel? What kind of name is that?"
"It's a popular name these days!" exclaimed Cannie.
"It'll be a major setback in his childhood!" replied Pawson.
"Major… how about Major?"
"Good… I like it," agreed Pawson. "You're right about one thing, though. Major will never reach his full potential on this farm. We have to get him out."
Pawson and Cannie agreed on a tunnel. They would put it under the trough, so Mr. Jones wouldn't see it. They also agreed that they couldn't do it alone. They asked around, first to Torrie, a 10-year-old mare expecting a baby soon.
"I would love to help," said Torrie, "as long as I can join you. I want my baby to live to a natural twenty-five… not be killed at twelve. I'll do it, so long as I can come, too." Soon quite a few animals agreed to join them- this included a pig named Flake, who claimed to be an expert tunneler.
The first meeting took place, of course at the pigsty a few months later. Torrie had given birth, naming her girl Mollie. Major had learned how to talk, and the group decided that it would be only fitting to have him join the meeting. The majority of animals that had given Mr. Jones trouble in the past had been moved to a separate quarter, but the regular section was becoming more jam-packed each day, so Pawson and Cannie were moved there, too. Luckily, the majority of animals involved in the escape were the so called troublemakers, allowing them to continue working on their plans.
"Fellow animals!" called Pawson. "We have a plan. There are three main barns in Manor Farm. We plan to dig a tunnel going into each one. All of us will need to dig towards a different barn."
"I have planted sticks deep into the ground to plot courses for the tunnels," said Cannie. One animal in each barn has been given instructions regarding which barn to tunnel to. Now. Are there any questions?"
"Yes," said Flake the pig. "Where do we make the opening?"
"Originally," said Pawson, "we were going to build it under the trough. However, these new barns have tile floors. Lift one up and dig under there. Barns with bigger animals in them will need to have tunnels big enough for them to fit into. Nobody gets left behind."
Every night, the animals would lift up the floor tiles and work on their tunnels, using wet mud as support. The three cabins were given names: "A" was Major's barn, "B" was the barn Flake was in charge of and "C" was the name of Torrie's barn. Barn B reached barn C quickly, partially because that was Flake's cabin, and mainly because the cabin was pigs- smaller than the horses. This was all supervised by Mo, a dog that sniffed out where the tunnels were at, and how far was needed until the tunnels were completed. Every Friday night, the animals would meet and discuss problems.
The next day, as Mo was sniffing out the tunnels, he noticed Ollie, a cat who was a very active member of the club, running at the Farm's fence. At first, he thought the cat would climb the fence and out to freedom, and wondered why this was the first try. Then he saw. Mr. Jones was chasing him with his shotgun, obviously drunk. Ollie was halfway up the fence when Mr. Jones shot him twice in the back. Ollie dropped dead, and Mo ran to his barn, where the animals seemed to be rejoicing.
"Jones shot Ollie! He's dead!" Mo panted.
"DEAD" exclaimed Major, who was now two, and was playing with Mollie.
"Oh that poor cat… and so close," whispered Flake.
"Close?" asked Mo.
"We finished the tunnels. We can get away today!" said Mollie.
"My god… Ollie… damn," murmured Mo.
That night, all of the animals moved into the tunnel, in the order of A, B and then C. One by one, the animals trod out of the tunnel. In cabin B, Flake looked at the tunnel.
"No way man… I can't do it," said Flake to Mo.
"What?"
"I can't… I'm claustrophobic. I can't…"
Ollie was about to protest when Leho the pig stepped in.
"He doesn't want to go, he doesn't have to," sighed Leho. "Be we got to go."
The animals snuck into the woods. Mr. Jones's men were on patrol, and as the animals finally made it to the safety of the woods, Torrie looked back.
"Mollie!" she yelled. Mollie was examining one of Mr. Jones's fox trap. It would set off an alarm if she touched it, and then clamp shut. Mollie kicked it, and a horrible noise set off from somewhere in the barn. It clamped shut, but missed Mollie, who ran over to the rest of them. When she arrived, the animals ran. Some were shot by Jones's men (all of them drunk). Eventually, most of the animals were caught, and sent back to the farm.
Every night, Cannie would sing a song called "Beasts of England" to Major, until, three years later; Mr. Jones took Cannie, and later Pawson, away and killed them. Major was later entered in a beauty contest, and won first prize, hope that Mr. Jones wouldn't kill him for some time yet. He forgot about "Beasts of England," but not how much he despised his owner.