It is early evening and everyone is returning to the bunkhouse for the night. George and develop a friendship. George tells why he and Lennie travel around together and about Lennie’s deficiency. He explains that is strong but not mean; 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 job. Slim gives Lennie one of his . It has to stay in the barn with its mom until it gets bigger, but Lennie tries to sneak it out.

complains for a long while about the stink produced by ’s dog and finally convinces Candy to allow him to shoot 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 men try to continue playing and carry on normally.

A little while later, leaves the room to fix his ’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 fight. While the bunkhouse is virtually empty, George again tells about the dream of owning a farm. 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 reality. 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. does not fight back while Curley beats him viciously until George tells him to. Then 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.