Boxer's First Harvest
Mr. Jones whipped Boxer one last time before slugging back another shot of cheap rum and going to bed. Boxer had kicked and gave Mr. Jones a big fuss and now learned how harsh Mr. Jones could be. The other horse, Clover was really scared that one day she would get beaten by a drunken Mr. Jones and not even do anything wrong. Old Major told Boxer that night that it may be a better idea to just work harder and Mr. Jones might give him a larger ration of hay. But Boxer doubted it. Mr. Jones was a cheap skate and would not give any of the other animals more food. Only Mollie the cat would get more food. She was always spoiled by Mr. Jones and his wife. It made the other animals a little jealous. Boxer had only really started working for Mr. Jones two weeks ago and was still a young horse and was not yet at his peak in strength. But he might learn a lot during the next few days. After all it was going to be Boxer's first harvest.
Oh how it made Boxer HATE Mr. Jones for over working him and then beating him. However he never thought he could really kill Mr. Jones for it. Many other animals would disagree with that idea. The pigs for example they would roast him alive and rip out his guts as long as it was before Mr. Jones would start fattening and be heading them to turn them into ham and veal. But not Boxer, he would not hurt a fly.
The next day was brutal for Boxer. All of the equipment was digging into his hide. The only thing that was really working for him was the fact that he was not going at it alone. Clover was with him the whole time but it was not like they could talk while they worked. While one hauled the hay from the field the other hauled there cart back (with an escort from one of Jones's men). Plus Jones rushed the horses because there were rain clouds everywhere. It never did rain.
That night Jones and his men all went and got drunk for a good days work. But the next day they were too hung over to go to work or even feed the animals. Since he was fattening one of the pigs he had to cut rations for all the other animals which was especially hard on Boxer and Clover. The next day Jones worked the two horses twice as hard to make up for lost time. But the drinking problem happened again and they lost another day of work.
Boxer had learned to hate for Jones even more than before. But he found that the only way to speed-up the harvest was to just work harder but within a day or two that idea sort of fell apart.
The night the harvest finally ended the pig Mr. Jones was fattening was finally killed and turned into ham therefore giving all the animals larger rations. But Boxer still held a grudge on Mr. Jones for getting drunk all those nights. Boxer was relieved that it meant the winter was here and he didn't have to work so hard for a while. He was sort of happy.