~Walker Leonard , Class of 2025 

Jarred goat
Browns farm
4 strawberry road
Bourbonnais IL

There have been many changes on the farm that I wish to inform you about. I know our relationship has been icy in the past but comrade Napoleon has advised us to write to our family members about these changes and hopefully inspire them to do the same. It all started with Old Major’s speech. One night he called us all to the barn to recount a dream he had had the previous night. Before he told us of the dream he reminded us of our great obstacle as animals: man. Man who makes us work his fields. Man, who takes our eggs and milk and only gives a fraction back to us. Man, the only creature that consumes but does not produce. Then we were told our only way out was rebellion. Plenty of food and animals frolicking and grazing as they please, this would all be possible without man. The promise of all this motivated me especially. 

After this, we all knew the rebellion was coming. We didn’t know when or how but we expected it would be a long wait. One day Mr. Jones and his men left to go rabiting without feeding us. We could bear this mistreatment no longer and broke into the store shed to feed ourselves. It was at this moment that Jones and his men came back. They beat and lashed us with no mercy. Again we could bear it no longer. We fought back and sent them running. I was thrilled by the battle and the prospect of freedom. After burning all of Jones’ stuff. We drafted a constitution and the next day got to working on the farm. After many weeks of things going smoothly on the farm Jones and his men came back with vengeance in their eyes, but we had a plan. The pigs had been reading up on Julius Caesar’s tactics and we decimated them easily. This showed that we could think for ourselves and the previous battle wasn’t just luck on our part. 

Every Sunday we would gather in the barn and discuss the work for the following week and propose policies and ideas. Only the pigs ever proposed anything in the meetings, the rest of us voted but could never think of anything to propose on our own. Two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball were particularly vocal but could never agree. Their biggest disagreement was whether or not we should build a windmill. Snowball declared that with the power it would generate we would only have to work three days a week but Napoleon insisted that we needed to focus on food production for the coming winter. Soon the animals formed themselves into two factions under the slogans, ‘vote for Snowball and the three-day week’ and ‘vote for Napoleon and the full manger’. I was always on comrade Napoleon’s side up until the day of the vote when Snowball put forth the most beautiful speech in support of the windmill. He put the whole farm in his favor. 

Then something strange happened: Napoleon let out an odd sort of howl and nine dogs came rushing into the barn and chased Snowball off the farm. After that Napoleon abolished the Sunday meetings and said that: all questions relating to the working of the farm will be settled by a committee of pigs, presided over by myself.  Most of us miss being able to vote on policies and such, but like Boxer says: if comrade Napoleon says it it must be right.. So I backed him on this decision. 

After a few weeks, it was announced that the windmill was to be built. Later that day one of the pigs explained that Napoleon had never in reality been opposed to the windmill. On the contrary, it was he who had advocated it in the beginning, and the plan which Snowball had drawn on the floor of the incubator shed had actually been stolen from among Napoleon’s papers. The windmill was, in fact, Napoleon’s own creation. None of us completely understood this but we accepted the explanation nonetheless.

As you can see cousin much has changed. However, I think things can only get better with comrade Napoleon in charge. After all, without him we never would have known of Snowball’s true intentions. Granted the work will be harder as we build the windmill but I believe I have much to contribute moving materials due to my unusual strength for a goat. 

I and comrade Napoleon advise you to spread the word of this revolt and have one yourselves. It would be wonderful for your farm to have a government of its own as well (under comrade Napoleon of course).

Sincerely,

Carl Goat