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“You don’t need to tell me where it’s at. Might be any place.”
- NM

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Lol this still exists XD RIP

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ill put the old devil out of its misery right now and get it over with aint nothing left for him cant eat cant see cant even walk around without

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i can stilll tend the rabbits george sure you aint dne nothing wrong

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"I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog." RJ

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George shouted over and over. “Leggo his hand, Lennie. Leggo. Slim, come help me while the guy got any hand left. HB

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" I wont have no place to go and I wont have no jobs"

royston

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they looked at one another amazed

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George half-closed his eyes. "I gotta think about that. We was always gonna do it by ourselves." Candy interrupted him, "I'd make a will an' leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, 'cause I ain't got no relatives or nothing…" (Bree)

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I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some. How’d that be? HB

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"I don't want no fights," said Lennie. He got up from his bunk and sat down at the table, across from George. Almost automatically George shuffled the cards and laid out his solitaire hand. He used a deliberate, thoughtful, slowness. (Bree)

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"you gotta watch out them cats don't get the rabbits"

royston

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You jus’ let ‘em try to get the rabbits. I’ll break their God damn necks. I’ll . . . . I’ll smash ‘em with a stick. HB

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Slim had not moved. His calm eyes followed Lennie out of the door. "Jesus," he said. "He's jes' like a kid, ain't he."

"Sure, he's jes like a kid. There ain't no more harm in him than a kid neither, except he's so strong." (Bree)

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“You don’t need to tell me where it’s at. Might be any place.”
- NM

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"no sir we would have our own place"

royston

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"I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin' to fight all the time." (Bree)

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No, sir, we’d have our own place where we belonged and not sleep in no bunk house. HB

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“We could live offa the fatta the lan’.”
- NM

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Lennie smiled with this bruised mouth. "I didn't want no trouble," he said. He walked toward the door, but just before he came to it, he turned back. "George?"

"What you want?"

"I can still tend the rabbits, George?"

"Sure. You ain't done nothing wrong."

"I di'n't mean no harm, George."
RJ

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"Yeah," said Whit. "We don't never go there. Clara gets three bucks a crack and thirty-five cents a shot, and she don't crack no jokes. But Susy's place is clean and she got nice chairs." RJ

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god dam right i could DM

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" well, it's ten acres, " said George got a little win mill got a little shack on it an a chicken run got a chicken run. got a kitchen ochard cherries apples peaches cots nuts got a few berriers

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“Got a little win’mill. Got a little shack on it, an’ a chicken run. Got a kitchen, orchard, cherries, apples, peaches, HB

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“George, how long’s it gonna be till we get that little place an’ live on the fatta the lan’—an’ rabbits?”

-

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George sighed. “You give me a good whore house every time,” he said. “A guy can go in an’ get drunk and get ever’thing outa his system all at once, an’ no messes.
- NM

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"any of you guys seen my wife"

royston

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curly been in yet, no, whats eatin on curly DM

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If I was bright, if I was even a little bit smart, I'd have my own little place, an' I'd be bringin' in my own crops, 'stead of doin' all the work and not getting what comes up outa the ground. (Bree)

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"aint no place for a girl especially like her"

royston

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She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger. HB

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"big crazy guy messing around with the pups"

royston

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“It ain’t so funny, him an’ me goin’ aroun’ together,” George said - NM

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I bet lennies right out there in the barn

with his pup.

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Candy is an old ranch worker ("swamper") who has lost one of his hands in a farm accident. He's spent the best years of his life working on someone else's ranch, only to lose his hand and have little money. Depressing, right?

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“He ain’t mean,” said Slim. “I can tell a mean guy a mile off.”

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Slim is the "prince of the ranch." He's the consummate Western man: masterful, strong, fair-minded, practical, non-talkative, and exceptionally good at what he does. He is a god among men, and his word on any subject is law. Do you want it in Steinbeck's own words?

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"I can see Lennie ain't a bit mean." "'Course he ain't mean. But he gets in trouble alla time because he's so God damn dumb. Like what happened in Weed-" He stopped, stopped in the middle of turning over a card. He looked alarmed and peered over at Slim. "You wouldn't tell nobody?" "What'd he do in Weed?" Slim asked calmly. "You wouldn' tell?... No, 'course you wouldn'." "What'd he do in Weed?" Slim asked again. "Well, he seen this girl in a red dress. Dumb bastard like he is, he wants to touch ever'thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an' the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on 'cause that's the only thing he can think to do. Well, this girl squawks and squawks.

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Curley is the son of the ranch boss, so he's got a big head—which doesn't quite match up with his body. He used to be a lightweight fighter, and he just can't let go of the life: he picks fights just to prove himself on the ranch among other bigger (and better) men.

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Lennie was ditched and some other guy called slim is in the story now

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Hm, George says. Two dollars and fifty cents is a bit rich for his blood.

Sure, Whit says; you can get it cheaper at Clara's brothel, but Suzy's house is cleaner and Suzy tells better jokes.

Since George apparently loves a madam with a sense of humor, he's swayed by these selling points.

And then a whole bunch of people come in: Lennie; Carlson, tactlessly cleaning his gun; and Curley, looking for Mrs. Curley.

He hears that Slim is out in the barn and immediately fills in "… having sex with my wife," and storms off.

Whit and Carlson follow, excited for a fight.

George tells Lennie he'd take a good brothel over "jail bait" any day: at least with a brothel you know ahead of time what you're getting and how much it's going to set you back.

We get the feeling that "jail bait" means any woman who doesn't post her price clearly.

All this talk of sex is boring Lennie, who begs to hear the dream-farm story again. George complies.

Candy overhears this discussion and offers to chip in 300 dollars if they'll let him live at the farm, too.

The three of them imagine what life will be like once they have a place of their own.

George and Candy are particularly excited about being able to go where they want, when they want; Lennie is mostly stoked about the rabbits and other garden bits.

At this point, Candy admits that he should have shot his dog himself.

All the other guys come back in, and the testosterone in the bunkhouse reaches critical mass.

Slim is ticked at Curley for bugging him about his wife, Carlson calls Curley a coward, Curley starts punching Lennie, who does nothing until George yells at Lennie to "get 'im."

In a move that rivals Bruce Lee, Lennie grabs Curley's hand as it's coming toward his face, and essentially crushes it completely.

Carlson gets ready to cart Curley off to the doctor, and Slim shuts the situation down: he tells Curley to say that he got his hand caught in a machine. If he tries to get Lennie fired, Slim will tell everyone what really happened.

Moaning and crying, Curley agrees.

Lennie is scared that—because he has done a "bad thing"—George will no longer let him tend the rabbits. No, no, George reassures him: any future rabbits are his to tend, and tells him to go wash the blood off..

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Since Slim has handed down his verdict, the dog is as good as dead.

Candy lies down on his bed and stares up at the ceiling, while Carlson takes his gun and the dog outside.

George pretends to play cards.

All is quiet and hideously tense in the bunkhouse.

Finally, a shot is heard in the distance, and Candy turns his face to the wall.

Crooks pokes his head in the bunkhouse.

We haven't met Crook before. He takes care of all the horses and he gets his very own private room.

Lucky dog!

Oh, wait. He has to live by himself because he's black, and black people aren't allowed to live with white people. Never mind.

Crooks tells Slim that Lennie is hanging out in the barn petting the puppies too much.

That is actually not a euphemism.

Uh-oh. Slim goes to take a look.

Whit, another ranch hand, engages George in conversation about Curley's wife, who he says is a "loo loo." They agree that Curley has "yella-jackets in his drawers" and his pants "is just crawlin' with ants," all of which apparently means that Curley's wife's crazy sexuality has pumped up Curley's sexuality.

George wisely observes that Curley's wife is "gonna make a mess."

All this talk about sex leads Whit to invite George along on the Saturday-night-trip to the local brothel.

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"I used to have a hell of a lot of fun with 'im. Used to play jokes on 'im 'cause he was too dumb to take care of 'imself. But he was too dumb even to know he had a joke played on him. I had fun. Made me seem God damn smart alongside of him.

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New BFFs Slim and George walk into the bunkhouse together.

George thanks Slim for Lennie's new puppy. Slim asks the question that's on everyone's mind, wanting to know why a "cuckoo" like Lennie and a "smart little guy" like George are traveling around together.

Because Slim is a good guy, George tells him everything: that George knew Lennie's Aunt Clara, that he used to tease Lennie mercilessly until he realized how loyal Lennie was to him, that Lennie isn't exactly crazy, just dumb, that he's gotten used to Lennie's annoying ways, and that he's seen guys that go around by themselves and those guys get lonely and mean.

So he and Lennie stick together.

George also tells Slim what happened in Weed with the girl in the red dress—she got frightened of Lennie's petting, cried rape, and he and Lennie had to run for their lives, or at least run and hide in a muddy ditch for a while.

Slim decides that Lennie "ain't mean…he's jes like a kid."

If by "kid" you mean a very large and enormously powerful, full-grown man with a tendency to pet things to death.

Carlson comes in and complains again about the smell wafting off of Candy's dog and offers to shoot the creature with his trusty Luger.

Candy is miserable, since loves his old companion and can't bear the thought of killing him.

Slim, surprisingly, sides with Carlson: he'd want to be shot if he were old and crippled.