Mollie's stall had been filled with lavish decorations, ribbons and sugar cubes. All the animals in the barn were just outside her stall to wish her a happy birthday. Some of the animals were more reluctant then others. Then Old Major came in telling her he would have to take all this stuff away and that it was too human. How could this be? Old Major had died two months ago. Why was he taking away her ribbons and sugar cubes?
This was always the part of the dream where Mollie woke up. Ever since Old Major's speech she had been having this dream every night. At first she thought she was just being silly and scaring herself. She thought the dream would stop. After two weeks she had started to get worried. After two months of having the same dream she was very scared of the rebellion. She knew the rebellion couldn't possibly happen in her lifetime, all the same though her dream made her nervous.
Mollie had been wearing ribbons in her hair since she was 10 months old. She had been eating sugar cubes since she was 1 year and a half. Mollie was born a pretty and beautiful horse. She always got enough feed, the prettiest ribbons and the top prizes at horse shows. Mollie wasn't a working horse. She didn't want to lose her ribbons and sugar cubes. Mollie was not the kind of horse who would rebel against the human race and work hard for her own food. Someone had always done that for her. Mollie was very scared by how most of the animals really seemed to support the idea of the rebellion. That they might actually carry through with it. This made her very scared. Mollie went to see the only other animal that didn't want the rebellion. Mollie went to see Benjamin.
Of course Benjamin was turned off by the idea of the rebellion, just as Mollie had hoped. Benjamin told her that Donkeys lived to be very old. Old and wise. He said that he had seen other animals with plenty of crazy ideas. These ideas had lived in the minds of animals for months at a time, but were eventually forgotten about. Benjamin thought that the rebellion was going to be one of those ideas.
After talking to Benjamin, Mollie felt comforted. If someone as wise as Benjamin believed that the rebellion was just a crazy idea that would pass, then it probably would.
Because Mollie was so sure that the rebellion wasn't going to happen, she thought the horrible dream about losing her ribbons and sugar cubes would stop overtaking her conscience at night. Because of this reassurance, Mollie continued her day as if Old Major's speech had never happened. She ignored the hushed whispers between the animals when Jones was not around. She ignored the excitement of the animals who thought a rebellion would happen in their lifetimes. She ignored them until she awoke the next morning to a cloudy and rainy day. She had the dream again that night, but this time it was different. Old Major had said "Mollie, it's going to happen whether you would like it to or not".