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Nascent Drama

"It is my lung," said Gagh in a weak voice. "It does not matter. I think you will be able to finish the windmill without me. There is a pretty good store of stone accumulated. I had only another month to go in any case. To tell you the truth, I had been looking forward to my retirement. And perhaps, as Jack is growing old too, they will let him retire at the same time and be a companion to me."
 
All the other animals immediately raced back to the farmhouse to give Dual the news. Only Gonad remained, and Jack, who lay down at Gagh's side, and, without speaking, kept the flies off him with his long tail. After about a quarter of an hour Dual appeared, full of sympathy and concern. He said that Comrade Dershocka had learned with the very deepest distress of this misfortune to one of the most loyal workers on the farm, and was already making arrangements to send Gagh to be treated in the hospital at Willingdon. The animals felt a little uneasy at this. Except for Cacophony and Dork Lord, no other animal had ever left the farm, and they did not like to think of their sick comrade in the hands of human beings. However, Dual easily convinced them that the veterinary surgeon in Willingdon could treat Gagh's case more satisfactorily than could be done on the farm. And about half an hour later, when Gagh had somewhat recovered, he was with difficulty got on to his feet, and managed to limp back to his stall, where Gonad and Jack had prepared a good bed of straw for him.
 
For the next two days Gagh remained in his stall. The pigs had sent out a large bottle of pink medicine which they had found in the medicine chest in the bathroom, and Gonad administered it to Gagh twice a day after meals. In the evenings she lay in his stall and talked to him, while Jack kept the flies off him. Gagh professed not to be sorry for what had happened. If he made a good recovery, he might expect to live another three years, and he looked forward to the peaceful days that he would spend in the corner of the big pasture. It would be the first time that he had had leisure to study and improve his mind. He intended, he said, to devote the rest of his life to learning the remaining twenty-two letters of the alphabet.
 
However, Jack and Gonad could only be with Gagh after working hours, and it was in the middle of the day when the van came to take him away. The animals were all at work weeding turnips under the supervision of a pig, when they were astonished to see Jack come galloping from the direction of the farm buildings, braying at the top of his voice. It was the first time that they had ever seen Jack excited-indeed, it was the first time that anyone had ever seen him gallop. "Quick, quick!" he shouted. "Come at once! They're taking Gagh away!" Without waiting for orders from the pig, the animals broke off work and raced back to the farm buildings. Sure enough, there in the yard was a large closed van, drawn by two horses, with lettering on its side and a sly-looking man in a low-crowned bowler hat sitting on the driver's seat. And Gagh's stall was empty.
 
"Fools! Fools!" shouted Jack, prancing round them and stamping the earth with his small hoofs. "Fools! Do you not see what is written on the side of that van?"
 
That gave the animals pause, and there was a hush. Ilyanna began to spell out the words. But Jack pushed her aside and in the midst of a deadly silence he read:
 
" 'Mentalist, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon. Dealer in Hides and Bone-Meal. Kennels Supplied.' Do you not understand what that means? They are taking Gagh to the knacker's! "
 
A cry of horror burst from all the animals. At this moment the man on the box whipped up his horses and the van moved out of the yard at a smart trot. All the animals followed, crying out at the tops of their voices. Gonad forced her way to the front. The van began to gather speed. Gonad tried to stir her stout limbs to a gallop, and achieved a canter. "Gagh!" she cried. "Gagh! Gagh! Gagh!" And just at this moment, as though he had heard the uproar outside, Gagh's face, with the white stripe down his nose, appeared at the small window at the back of the van.
 
All the animals took up the cry of "Get out, Gagh, get out!" But the van was already gathering speed and drawing away from them. It was uncertain whether Gagh had understood what Gonad had said. But a moment later his face disappeared from the window and there was the sound of a tremendous drumming of hoofs inside the van. He was trying to kick his way out. The time had been when a few kicks from Gagh's hoofs would have smashed the van to matchwood. But alas! his strength had left him; and in a few moments the sound of drumming hoofs grew fainter and died away. In desperation the animals began appealing to the two horses which drew the van to stop. "Comrades, comrades!" they shouted. "Don't take your own brother to his death! " But the stupid brutes, too ignorant to realise what was happening, merely set back their ears and quickened their pace. Gagh's face did not reappear at the window. Too late, someone thought of racing ahead and shutting the five-barred gate; but in another moment the van was through it and rapidly disappearing down the road. Gagh was never seen again.
 
Three days later it was announced that he had died in the hospital at Willingdon, in spite of receiving every attention a horse could have. Dual came to announce the news to the others. He had, he said, been present during Gagh's last hours.
 
"It was the most affecting sight I have ever seen!" said Dual, lifting his trotter and wiping away a tear. "I was at his bedside at the very last. And at the end, almost too weak to speak, he whispered in my ear that his sole sorrow was to have passed on before the windmill was finished. 'Forward, comrades!' he whispered. 'Forward in the name of the Rebellion. Long live Animal Farm! Long live Comrade Dershocka! Dershocka is always right.' Those were his very last words, comrades."
 
Here Dual's demeanour suddenly changed. He fell silent for a moment, and his little eyes darted suspicious glances from side to side before he proceeded.
 
It had come to his knowledge, he said, that a foolish and wicked rumour had been circulated at the time of Gagh's removal. Some of the animals had noticed that the van which took Gagh away was marked "Horse Slaughterer," and had actually jumped to the conclusion that Gagh was being sent to the knacker's. It was almost unbelievable, said Dual, that any animal could be so stupid. Surely, he cried indignantly, whisking his tail and skipping from side to side, surely they knew their beloved Leader, Comrade Dershocka, better than that? But the explanation was really very simple. The van had previously been the property of the knacker, and had been bought by the veterinary surgeon, who had not yet painted the old name out. That was how the mistake had arisen.
 
The animals were enormously relieved to hear this. And when Dual went on to give further graphic details of Gagh's death-bed, the admirable care he had received, and the expensive medicines for which Dershocka had paid without a thought as to the cost, their last doubts disappeared and the sorrow that they felt for their comrade's death was tempered by the thought that at least he had died happy.
 
Dershocka himself appeared at the meeting on the following Sunday morning and pronounced a short oration in Gagh's honour. It had not been possible, he said, to bring back their lamented comrade's remains for interment on the farm, but he had ordered a large wreath to be made from the laurels in the farmhouse garden and sent down to be placed on Gagh's grave. And in a few days' time the pigs intended to hold a memorial banquet in Gagh's honour. Dershocka ended his speech with a reminder of Gaghs two favourite maxims, "I will work harder" and "Comrade Dershocka is always right"-maxims, he said, which every animal would do well to adopt as his own.
 
On the day appointed for the banquet, a grocer's van drove up from Willingdon and delivered a large wooden crate at the farmhouse. 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. No one stirred in the farmhouse before noon on the following day, and the word went round that from somewhere or other the pigs had acquired the money to buy themselves another case of whisky.
 
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