Chapter 6

An’ live on the fatta the lan’.

"George gonna give me hell," he said. "George gonna wish he was alone an' not have me botherin' him."

I done another bad thing.

You’ll jus’ stick around an’ stew the b’Jesus outa George all the time.

Suddenly Lennie appeared out of the brush, and he came as silently as a creeping bear moves.

George came quietly out of the brush and the rabbit scuttled back into Lennie’s brain.

You ain’t worth a greased jack–pin to ram you into hell. Christ knows George done ever’thing he could to jack you outa the sewer, but it don’t do no good.

"I can go right off there an’ find a cave," he said. And he continued sadly, "—an’ never have no ketchup—but I won’t care. If George don’t want me … I’ll go away. I’ll go away."

The deep green pool of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon. Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the sun.

"I tol’ you an’ tol’ you," she said. "I tol’ you, ‘Min’ George because he’s such a nice fella an’ good to you.’ But you don’t never take no care. You do bad things."