Good fortune smiles upon them briefly when they get work at a ranch near Soledad, California. Their co-workers include Candy (an old, one-handed fellow who owns a smelly dog), Crooks (a lonely stable hand who, BTW, is black), and Curley (an unfaithful man with severe anger management problems). We learn that Curley also has a new wife, who no one is allowed to look at (not her rule—she loves male attention).