What Really Happened to Old Major
The night after Old Major gave his speech was quite strange. He was just going to sleep when he heard human footsteps.
"That sounds like Jones" he thought, so, without stopping to ponder if it was
dangerous, he got up and trotted to the source of the noise. When he got there, all he found was the butt
of one of the cigars Jones had been smoking earlier and an empty bottle of beer.
"Must have just been Jones locking up those poor chickens in those horrible coops" he muttered to himself.
Later that night, Old Major woke with a start. As he was thinking of what it might have been that woke him up, he realised it was the same footsteps that had awoken him earlier. Again, Old Major plodded to the source of the noise. When he got to where the noise had been coming from, which was the workbench, he found only Jones' gloves. Finding just this did not satisfy Old Major. Somehow, he felt a strange tinge that there was more than just this.
"I'll bet that there's more than just this" he whispered to himself, so he rooted around for a while. It took him about five minutes to notice the horrible difference. The butchers knife was missing from the workbench. Jones was going to kill an animal!
"Tomorrow morning, I'll warn everyone" he thought to himself as he started to drift asleep to the sickly sound of a bloodstained knife being sharpened.
The next day, Old Major awoke before sunrise to the sound of birds singing 'Beasts of England'.
He thought for a minute about what he had told himself to do the previous night. He had a sudden memory of hearing a knife being sharpened.
"Oh yes, I was going...to...warn...everybody...abou-" and before he could finish his sentence, he was running towards Mollie's stall. Once he got there, he ran in and yelled "Mollie, Mollie, Jonessharpenedbutcherknifelastnightgonnakillanimal!"
'Huh, what was that? I didn't catch that last bit after "Mollie",' yawned Mollie, barely lifting an eyelid.
"Ah yes, after Mollie. Last night, as I was going to sleep, I heard that aweful human Jones sharpening his terrible butchers knife, which evidently means he is going to cruelly slaughter an animal on Manor Farm" He said rather more politely and slowly than his last burst-out.
"Aw, I don't beleive you. You're probably just trying to get me to do that stupid rebellion thing and not get my sugar and lovely ribbons". Muttered mollie, before drifting back to sleep.
Old Major went from animal to animal and it always happened the same way; he told the story, and they said they wanted to believe him, but couldn't because they thought it was just to get them to do what he wanted. Being the strong and persistent fellow he is, Old Major went from animal to animal until almost noon. It was only then that the old boar finally gave up an went to sleep until dawn the next day.
The next day, Old Major was feeling tired and lethargic. All day he slowly trotted around trying to persuade the sparrows to rebel, even though they had told him more than forty times that they would rebel, and then Old Major tried to teach them how to sing 'Beasts of England' even though they had sung it to him four times through already. That night, starting around sunset, Old Major did not even feel capable of walking, so he dragged himself over to his favourite place to sleep in the orchard. He then called his good old friend boxer over to sit beside him.
"Well, my old friend boxer, I guess my time has come then. Tell everyone on the farm that I will miss them, and that I say goodbye," Old major said quietly to Boxer, who said nothing. He then dismissed Boxer so he could have some private time before he died.
As Old Major was just feeling as though his life was leaving him, he saw Jones walking towards him with the butcher knife.
"This is definetly not how I want to go," thought Old Major, so, with his last ounce of energy, he lunged out and bit Jones' leg with all his might. Jones dropped the knife and limped away, clutching his bleeding leg. Later that night, Old Major died peacefully in his sleep.
Ben C.