At the beginning of chapter three of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Slim and George are in the bunkhouse talking. Slim comments that he rarely ever sees two men traveling together and is surprised about the friendship between George and Lennie. George tells Slim about how he and Lennie ended up together and confesses to Slim that Lennie often does "bad things" which cause them to lose jobs.
George also confesses that he used to "play jokes" on Lennie. Lennie is mentally challenged and looks to George for just about everything. One day George told Lennie to jump in a river and Lennie almost drowned before he could be saved. George describes the scene to Slim:
“Tell you what made me stop that. One day a bunch of guys was standin’ around up on the Sacramento River. I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and says, ‘Jump in.’ An’ he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him. An’ he was so damn nice to me for pullin’ him out. Clean forgot I told him to jump in. Well, I ain’t done nothing like that no more.”
Fear of causing Lennie's death made George stop playing tricks on his friend.
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