1 I will sing you that song now, comrades.
2 From now onwards it was forbidden to sing it.
3 Old Major cleared his throat and began to sing.
4 Any animal caught singing it was given a flogging on the spot.
5 The singing of this song threw the animals into the wildest excitement.
6 That evening loud laughter and bursts of singing came from the farmhouse.
7 He was, he said, teaching them to sing a new song, for which privacy was needed.
8 Almost before Major had reached the end, they had begun singing it for themselves.
9 I am old and my voice is hoarse, but when I have taught you the tune, you can sing it better for yourselves.
10 They could not understand, they said, how even animals could bring themselves to sing such contemptible rubbish.
11 That night there came from the farmhouse the sound of loud singing, in which, to everyone's surprise, the strains of 'Beasts of England' were mixed up.
12 Many years ago, when I was a little pig, my mother and the other sows used to sing an old song of which they knew only the tune and the first three words.
13 They had just finished singing it for the third time when Squealer, attended by two dogs, approached them with the air of having something important to say.
14 They were so delighted with the song that they sang it right through five times in succession, and might have continued singing it all night if they had not been interrupted.
15 That night there was the sound of uproarious singing, which was followed by what sounded like a violent quarrel and ended at about eleven o'clock with a tremendous crash of glass.
16 Even the tune of 'Beasts of England' was perhaps hummed secretly here and there: at any rate, it was a fact that every animal on the farm knew it, though no one would have dared to sing it aloud.