At the novel's outset, Steinbeck takes great pains to familiarize us with the setting, using poetic imagery to describe the "golden foothill slopes" (1) of the Salinas River Valley and a particular pool on the banks of which "the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them" (1). Some rabbits sit in the sand. The novel begins here, in the cool of the sycamores among the golden …showed first 75 words of 982 total…

…showed last 75 words of 982 total…no more" (16)) and returns to more practical matters: eating dinner, reminding Lennie not to talk to the boss tomorrow, and getting some rest. His final order to Lennie is one that we sould remember: George tells him to come back to the exact same spot where they are sitting and hide in the brush until George comes for him should anything go wrong at the ranch. Night falls on the end of the first chapter.