Chapter One

Of Mice and Men

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 Chapter One
A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green.
The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the
narrow pool. On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan
Mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees— willows fresh and green with every spring,
carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white,
recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. On the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep
and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Rabbits come out of the brush to sit
on the sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night tracks of ‘coons, and with the
spreadpads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark.
There is a path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten hard by boys coming down from
the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by tramps who come wearily down from the highway in
the evening to jungle-up near water. In front of the low horizontal limb of a giant sycamore there is an ash pile
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made by many fires; the limb is worn smooth by men who have sat on it.
 Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the
leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand
banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray sculptured stones. Draw Lennie and George below:
And then from the direction of the state highway came the sound
of footsteps on crisp sycamore leaves. The rabbits hurried
noiselessly for cover. A stilted heron labored up into the air and
pounded down river. For a moment the place was lifeless, and
then two men emerged from the path and came into the opening
by the green pool.
They had walked in single file down the path, and even in the open
one stayed behind the other. Both were dressed in denim
trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons. Both wore black,
shapeless hats and both carried tight blanket rolls slung over
their shoulders. The first man was small and quick, dark of face,
with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Every part of him
was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony
nose. Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of
face, with large, pale eyes, and wide, sloping shoulders; and he
walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his
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paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely.
 Highlight any clues about how Lennie and George’s relationship works.
What do you notice about Lennie?
The first man stopped short in the clearing, and the follower nearly ran over him. He took off his hat and wiped
the sweat-band with his forefinger and snapped the moisture off. His huge companion dropped his blankets and
flung himself down and drank from the surface of the green pool; drank with long gulps, snorting into the water
like a horse. The small man stepped nervously beside him.
“Lennie!” he said sharply. “Lennie, for God’ sakes don’t drink so much.” Lennie continued to snort into the pool.
The small man leaned over and shook him by the shoulder. “Lennie. You gonna be sick like you was last night.”
Lennie dipped his whole head under, hat and all, and then he sat up on the bank and his hat dripped down on his
blue coat and ran down his back. “That’s good,” he said. “You drink some, George. You take a good big drink.” He
smiled happily.
George unslung his bindle and dropped it gently on the bank. “I ain’t sure it’s good water,” he said. “Looks kinda
scummy.”
Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water and wiggled his fingers so the water arose in little splashes; rings
widened across the pool to the other side and came back again. Lennie watched them go. “Look, George. Look
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what I done.”
 What can we infer about Lennie?
How does George treat him?
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 George looked sharply at him. “What’d you take outa that Lennie’s closed hand slowly obeyed. George took the mouse
pocket?” and threw it across the pool to the other side, among the
“Ain’t a thing in my pocket,” Lennie said cleverly. brush. “What you want of a dead mouse, anyways?”

“I know there ain’t. You got it in your hand. What you got in “I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along,” said
your hand— hidin’ it?” Lennie.
“I ain’t got nothin’, George. Honest.” “Well, you ain’t petting no mice while you walk with me. You
remember where we’re goin’ now?”
“Come on, give it here.”
Lennie looked startled and then in embarrassment hid his
Lennie held his closed hand away from George’s direction. face against his knees. “I forgot again.”
“It’s on’y a mouse, George.”
“Jesus Christ,” George said resignedly. “Well—look, we’re
“A mouse? A live mouse?” gonna work on a ranch like the one we come from up north.”
“Uh-uh. Jus’ a dead mouse, George. I didn’t kill it. Honest! I “Up north?”
found it. I found it dead.”
“In Weed.”
“Give it here!” said George.
“Oh, sure. I remember. In Weed.”
“Aw, leave me have it, George.”
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“Give it here!” What is Lennie carrying in his pocket? And why?!

 “That ranch we’re goin’ to is right down there about a quarter
mile. We’re gonna go in an’ see the boss. Now, look—I’ll give
“Oh, so ya forgot that too, did ya? Well, I ain’t gonna remind ya,
him the work tickets, but you ain’t gonna say a word. You jus’
fear ya do it again.”
stand there and don’t say nothing. If he finds out what a
crazy bastard you are, we won’t get no job, but if he sees ya A light of understanding broke on Lennie’s face. “They run us
work before he hears ya talk, we’re set. Ya got that?” outa Weed,” he exploded triumphantly.
“Sure, George. Sure I got it.” “Run us out, hell,” said George disgustedly. “We run. They was
lookin’ for us, but they didn’t catch us.”
“O.K. Now when we go in to see the boss, what you gonna
do?” Lennie giggled happily. “I didn’t forget that, you bet.”
“I . . . . I . . . .” Lennie thought. His face grew tight with George lay back on the sand and crossed his hands under his
thought. “I . . . . ain’t gonna say nothin’. Jus’ gonna stan’ head, and Lennie imitated him, raising his head to see
there.” whether he was doing it right. “God, you’re a lot of trouble,”
said George. “I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t
“Good boy. That’s swell. You say that over two, three times so
have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl.”
you sure won’t forget it.”
For a moment Lennie lay quiet, and then he said hopefully, “We
Lennie droned to himself softly, “I ain’t gonna say nothin’ . . . .
gonna work on a ranch, George.”
I ain’t gonna say nothin’ . . . . I ain’t gonna say nothin’.”
“Awright. You got that. But we’re gonna sleep here because I
“O.K.,” said George. “An’ you ain’t gonna do no bad things like
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got a reason.”
you done in Weed, neither.”
George makes Lennie promise not to to talk at their
Lennie looked puzzled. “Like I done in Weed?”
new job. Why do you think he needs to do that?
 The day was going fast now. Only the tops of the Gabilan Mountains flamed with the light of the sun that had gone from
the valley. A water snake slipped along on the pool, its head held up like a little periscope. The reeds jerked slightly in the
current. Far off toward the highway a man shouted something, and another man shouted back. The sycamore limbs
rustled under a little wind that died immediately.
“George—why ain’t we goin’ on to the ranch and get some supper? They got supper at the ranch.”
George rolled on his side. “No reason at all for you. I like it here. Tomorra we’re gonna go to work. I seen thrashin’
machines on the way down. That means we’ll be buckin’ grain bags, bustin’ a gut. Tonight I’m gonna lay right here and look
up. I like it.”
Lennie got up on his knees and looked down at George. “Ain’t we gonna have no supper?”
“Sure we are, if you gather up some dead willow sticks. I got three cans of beans in my bindle. You get a fire ready. I’ll give
you a match when you get the sticks together. Then we’ll heat the beans and have supper.”
Lennie said, “I like beans with ketchup.”
“Well, we ain’t got no ketchup. You go get wood. An’ don’t you fool around. It’ll be dark before long.”
Lennie lumbered to his feet and disappeared in the brush. George lay where he was and whistled softly to himself. There
were sounds of splashings down the river in the direction Lennie had taken. George stopped whistling and listened. “Poor
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bastard,” he said softly, and then went on whistling again.

George doesn’t want to go straight to the ranch. Other than not wanting to get put to work right away,
why do you think he stays by the river for one more night? (Take a guess if you aren’t sure.)
 Highlight what George’s life could
“There’s enough beans for four men,” George said. be like if he didn’t have Lennie.
Lennie watched him from over the fire. He said patiently, “I like ‘em with ketchup.”
“Well, we ain’t got any,” George exploded. “Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want. God a’mighty, if I was alone I
could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I
could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want. Why, I could stay in a cat house all night. I could
eat any place I want, hotel or any place, and order any damn thing I could think of. An’ I could do all that every damn
month. Get a gallon of whisky, or set in a pool room and play cards or shoot pool.” Lennie knelt and looked over the fire
at the angry George. And Lennie’s face was drawn with terror. “An’ whatta I got,” George went on furiously. “I got you!
You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get. Jus’ keep me shovin’ all over the country all the time. An’ that ain’t
the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out.” His voice rose nearly to a shout. “You crazy
son-of-a-bitch. You keep me in hot water all the time.” He took on the elaborate manner of little girls when they are
mimicking one another. “Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress—jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse—Well, how the
hell did she know you jus’ wanted to feel her dress? She jerks back and you hold on like it was a mouse. She yells and
we got to hide in a irrigation ditch all day with guys lookin’ for us, and we got to sneak out in the dark and get outa the
country. All the time somethin’ like that—all the time. I wisht I could put you in a cage with about a million mice an’ let
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you have fun.” His anger left him suddenly. He looked across the fire at Lennie’s anguished face, and then he looked
ashamedly at the flames.
 Lennie avoided the bait. He had sensed his advantage. “If you don’t want me, you only jus’ got to say so, and I’ll go off in those hills right there—right up in
those hills and live by myself. An’ I won’t get no mice stole from me.”
George said, “I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself. No, you stay with me. Your Aunt
Clara wouldn’t like you running off by yourself, even if she is dead.”
Lennie spoke craftily, “Tell me—like you done before.”
“Tell you what?”
“About the rabbits.”
George snapped, “You ain’t gonna put nothing over on me.”
Lennie pleaded, “Come on, George. Tell me. Please, George. Like you done before.”
“You get a kick outa that, don’t you? Awright, I’ll tell you, and then we’ll eat our supper . . . .” George’s voice became deeper. He repeated his words
rhythmically as though he had said them many times before. “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no fambly.
They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go into town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re
poundin’ their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to.”
Lennie was delighted. “That’s it—that’s it. Now tell how it is with us.”
George went on. “With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit-in no bar room
blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us.”
Lennie broke in. “But not us! An’ why? Because . . . . because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why.” He laughed
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delightedly. “Go on now, George!”

“You got it by heart. You can do it yourself.” Highlight George’s story about their future.
“No, you. I forget some a’ the things. Tell about how it’s gonna be.”
 “O.K. Someday—we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs
and—”
“An’ live off the fatta the lan’,” Lennie shouted. “An’ have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and
about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly
cut it. Tell about that, George.”
“Why’n’t you do it yourself? You know all of it.”
“No . . . . you tell it. It ain’t the same if I tell it. Go on . . . . George. How I get to tend the rabbits.”
“Well,” said George, “we’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the
hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof—Nuts!” He took
out his pocket knife. “I ain’t got time for no more.” He drove his knife through the top of one of the bean cans, sawed out the top and
passed the can to Lennie. Then he opened a second can. From his side pocket he brought out two spoons and passed one of them to
Lennie.
They sat by the fire and filled their mouths with beans and chewed mightily. A few beans slipped out of the side of Lennie’s mouth.
George gestured with his spoon. “What you gonna say tomorrow when the boss asks you questions?”
Lennie stopped chewing and swallowed. His face was concentrated. “I . . . . I ain’t gonna . . . . say a word.”
“Good boy! That’s fine, Lennie! Maybe you’re gettin’ better. When we get the coupla acres I can let you tend the rabbits all right. ‘Specially
if you remember as good as that.”
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Lennie choked with pride. “I can remember,” he said Highlight George’s story about their future.
 What is it about their dream
that appeals to George?
What appeals to Lennie?
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 After reading chapter 1, how would you
describe George and Lennie’s relationship?
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