It is early evening and everyone is returning to the for the night. George and Slim develop a friendship. George tells why he and Lennie travel around together and about Lennie’s deficiency. He explains that Lennie is but not ; he doesn’t even know his own strength. George even explains that he used to play on Lennie but that he stopped because the last time Lennie almost . And George confides in Slim about what really happened in to force them to leave their last . Slim gives Lennie one of his . It has to stay in the with its mom until it gets bigger, but Lennie tries to sneak it out.

complains for a long while about the stink produced by Candy’s and finally convinces Candy to allow him to the dog. Though Candy protests, he cannot find anyone to back him up, so he reluctantly gives in. Once the shooting finally happens, Candy is despondent and the rest of the try to continue playing and carry on normally.

A little while later, Slim leaves the room to fix his horse’s shoe. comes into the bunk house looking for his wife and suspiciously suspects Slim of being with her since he isn’t in the room. He runs off to the barn to confront Slim and the rest of the ranchers--except Lennie, George, and Candy--follow to see if there will be a . While the bunkhouse is virtually empty, George again tells Lennie about the dream of owning a . When hears this, he gets excited and asks if he can be a part of it. He even offers to contribute $350.00 which makes it possible for their dream to become a . Everyone returns to the bunkhouse including Curley. He is still confronting Slim, and Carlson makes fun of him. He knows he can’t win in a fight against Slim or Carlson, so he immediately picks on who he believes is laughing at him. Lennie does not fight back while Curley him viciously until tells him to. Then Lennie breaks every bone in Curley’s . George is afraid this will get them fired, but Slim makes sure that Curley won’t tell on them.