Loyalty / Strength

P 39 Loyalty

 George looked over at Slim and saw the calm, Godlike eyes
fastened on him. "Funny," said George. "I used to have a hell of a
lot of fun with 'im. Used to play jokes on 'im 'cause he was too
dumb to take care of 'imself. But he was too dumb even to know he
had a joke played on him. I had fun. Made me seem God damn
smart alongside of him. Why he'd do any damn thing I tol' hits. If I
tol' him to walk over a cliff, over he'd go. That wasn't so damn
much fun after a while. He never got mad about it, neither. I've
beat the hell outa him, and he coulda bust every bone in my body
jus' with his han's, but he never lifted a finger against me."
George's voice was taking on the tone of confession. "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."