Free Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Page B

fingers.
    "Jus' set down," he said. "George ain't hurt."

    Lennie growled back to his seat on the nail keg. "Ain't nobody goin' to talk no hurt to George," he grumbled.

    Crooks said gently, "Maybe you can see now. You got George.
    Youknow he's goin' to come back. S'pose you didn't have nobody.
    S'pose you couldn't go into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black. How'd you like that? S'pose you had to sit out here an' read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody -to be near him." He whined, "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya," he cried, "I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick."

    "George gonna come back," Lennie reassured himself in a frightened voice. "Maybe George come back already. Maybe I better go see."

    Crooks said, "I didn't mean to scare you. He'll come back. I was talkin' about myself. A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin' books or thinkin' or stuff like that. Sometimes he gets thinkin', an' he got nothing to tell him what's so an' what ain't so.
    Maybe if he sees somethin', he don't know whether it's right or not. He can't turn to some other guy and ast him if he sees it too.
    He can't tell. He got nothing to measure by. I seen things out here.
    I wasn't drunk. I don't know if I was asleep. If some guy was with me, he could tell me I was asleep, an' then it would be all right.
    But I jus' don't know." Crooks was looking across the room now, looking toward the window.

    Lennie said miserably, "George won't go away and leave me. I know George wun't do that."

    The stable buck went on dreamily, "I remember when I was a little kid on my old man's chicken ranch. Had two brothers. They was always near me, always there. Used to sleep right in the same room, right in the same bed-all three. Had a strawberry patch.
    Had an alfalfa patch. Used to turn the chickens out in the alfalfa on a sunny morning. My brothers'd set on a fence rail an' watch
    'em-white chickens they was."

    Gradually Lennie's interest came around to what was being said.
    "George says we're gonna have alfalfa for the rabbits."

    "What rabbits?"

    "We're gonna have rabbits an' a berry patch."

    "You're nuts."

    "We are too. You ast George."

    "You're nuts." Crooks was scornful. "I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Everybody wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head. They're all the time talkin' about it, but it's jus' in their head." He paused and looked toward the open door, for the horses were moving restlessly and the halter chains clinked. A horse whinnied. "I guess somebody's out there," Crooks said. "Maybe Slim. Slim comes in sometimes two, three times a night. Slim's a real skinner. He looks out for his team." He pulled himself painfully upright and moved toward the door. "That you, Slim?" he called.

    Candy's voice answered. "Slim went in town. Say, you seen Lennie?"

    "Ya mean the big guy?"

    "Yeah. Seen him around any place?"

    "He's in here," Crooks said shortly. He went back to his bunk and lay down.

    Candy stood in the doorway scratching his bald wrist and looking blindly into the lighted room. He made no attempt to enter. "Tell ya what, Lennie. I been figuring out about them rabbits."

    Crooks said irritably, "You can come in if you want."

    Candy seemed embarrassed. "I do' know. 'Course, if ya want me to."

    "Come on in. If ever'body's comin' in, you might just as well." It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger.

    Candy came in, but he was