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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Retold by Jen Sanders, Beth Sampson, & teachers of the Newton Public Schools Setting: Maycomb, Alabama, 1930’s Narrator: Jean Louise “Scout” Finch Chapter 1 When my brother Jem was almost 13 he broke his arm, badly. Even though it healed, we always talked about what really caused the accident. I said the Ewells, but he said Dill and Boo Radley started it. But then he said if our ancestors, the Finches had never moved to Alabama, then none of this would have happened, and the rest is history. We’re southerners. We think it’s a big deal who your family is, where you’ve come from, and what you’re known for. Our ancestor, Simon Finch, was a stingy and religious man. He saved up all his money to buy up Finch’s Landing, and for generations that’s where our family has lived. My Aunt Alexandra still lives here now with her quiet husband. My father Atticus Finch, went to Montgomery, Alabama to study law, and his brother Jack went to Boston to study to be a doctor. My father moved back to Maycomb once he finished law school. Maycomb was a tired, old town back in those days. People moved slowly, ambling across the town square. Days seemed long, especially on hot summer days. People didn’t hurry, because there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy, no money to buy it with, and nothing to see. We lived on the main street, Atticus, Jem, and I. Our father played with us, read to us, and treated us fine. We had a cook too, Calpurnia. She was strict with me. She always asked me why I didn’t behave as well as Jem. But he was older anyhow. She always won our battles; my father always took her side. Our mother died of a heart attack when I was two so I didn’t remember her. Jem seemed to miss her though. One day during the summer when I was six and Jem was nine, we were playing in our neighborhood as usual. We heard something in Miss Rachel’s garden. We found a boy sitting looking at us. He said, “I’m Charles Baker Harris. I can read.” “So what?” I said. Jem wanted to get a better look at him so he said, “Why don’t you come over, Charles Baker Harris.” “Folks call me Dill, “ he said, struggling to fit under the fence. Dill told us he was from Mississippi, but was spending the summer with his aunt Rachel. He had seen a bunch of movies, so he described them to us, and we spent the next days acting them out. He was very creative, and always had good ideas. We eventually got tired of recreating Dracula and other stories. That’s when Dill’s fascination with the Radley house began. The Radley house had sagging shingles, and a drooping porch. The grass was too high and the paint had turned gray and dingy. Even in the long, hot summer, the doors were shut up tight. There was a rumor that it was haunted. People said “Boo” Radley went out at night and peeped in people’s windows. That he breathed on flowers and they froze instantly. They said he committed little crimes in the night but not one ever saw him. The history of the story is that Arthur, “Boo”, got into a bad crowd in high school. They swore, fought, and got into real trouble when they locked a court officer in the outhouse (bathroom). Boo’s father was so strict that the judge let him take Boo home, and no one had seen him since. Years later, the story goes, Boo was making a scrapbook out of articles from the Maycomb Tribune when he stabbed his father with a pair of scissors, and kept right on cutting. Mr. Radley was not a nice man. He went to town each day but never spoke to us even if we said “Good Morning, Sir.” When he died, Calpurnia said, “There goes the meanest man God ever blew breath into.” The neighborhood thought maybe Boo would come out, but his older brother Nathan moved in and
he was just as mean. Atticus didn’t like us to talk about the Radleys much, but the more we told Dill about the Radleys, the more he wanted to know. He would stand there hugging the light pole. “Wonder what he does in there,” he would murmur. “Wonder what he looks like?” Jem said Boo was six and a half feet tall, ate squirrels and cats, his teeth were yellow, and he drooled most of the time. “Let’s try to make him come out,” said Dill. Dill bet Jem to go up and knock on the door. Jem thought about it for three days. “You’re scared,” Dill said. “Ain’t scared, just trying to be respectful,” Jem said. Three days later, after Dill had taunted him and called him scared repeatedly, Jem finally gave in. He walked slowly to the Radley yard, threw open the gate, sped to the house, slapped it with his hand, and sprinted back to us. When we were safe on our porch, we looked back at the old, droopy house. We thought we saw a slight movement inside. Chapter 2 I was really looking forward to starting school. I was going into the first grade. Finally! Atticus made Jem take me to school on the first day. I think Atticus even gave him some money as a bribe to let me tag along because I heard a jingle in Jem’s pockets on the way. Jem told me that during school I wasn’t supposed to bother him. We couldn’t play together because it would embarrass him since he was in fifth grade. My teacher’s name was Miss Caroline Fisher. She was twenty-one years old and very pretty. She had bright auburn hair, pink cheeks, and wore crimson fingernail polish. Miss Caroline was from Winston County, which is in northern Alabama. She read us a story about cats on the first day. The cats had long conversations with one another, they wore cunning little clothes and lived in a warm house beneath a kitchen stove. By the time Mrs. Cat called the drugstore for an order of chocolate malted mice the class was wriggling in their seats. They thought this story was too immature for them. My classmates and I were very mature in a way because, even though they are young, they have had to chop cotton and feed hogs since they were very little. Miss Caroline Fisher found out that I could already read, and this upset her. She wanted to teach me to read herself, I guess, and I think it disappointed her that I already knew how. So she got made at me!! How ridiculous! She told me that my father, Atticus, should not teach me anymore because he would do it all wrong. But I told her that he didn’t teach me! So Miss Caroline said, “Let’s not let our imaginations run away with us, dear. Now you tell your father not to teach you any more. It’s best to begin reading with a fresh mind. You tell him I’ll take over from here and try to undo the damage. Your father does not know how to teach.” I guess I picked up reading from sitting in my father’s lap each night while he read the newspaper out loud and followed along underneath the words with his finger. Miss Caroline also got made at me for knowing how to write!! Calpurnia was to blame for that!! On rainy days she would have me sit and copy out a chapter of the Bible. When lunchtime rolled around on ten first day of school, Miss Caroline noticed that Walter Cunningham had no lunch. She tried to loan him a quarter to buy lunch, but he was very embarrassed and kept saying no. The class expected ME to explain the situation to Miss Caroline, so I did. When I stood up, she asked, “What is it, Jean Louise?” I replied, “Miss Caroline, he’s a Cunningham.” But she didn’t understand what I meant. What I was trying to tell her was that the Cunninghams were very poor farmers, but they never took charity. They never took anything that they couldn’t pay back. And since Walter couldn’t pay Miss Caroline back, he wouldn’t take her money. I remember one time when Atticus did some legal work for Walter Cunningham’s father, whose name is also Walter. Mr. Cunningham paid my father back not with money, but with a load of wood and a sack of hickory nuts. Miss Caroline didn’t understand me though. She thought I was being rude and making jokes. So she told me to hold out my hand. I thought she was going to spit in my hand because in Maycomb, kids spit in each other’s hands to seal a promise. But instead she patted my hand
Chapter 4 My school year went on pretty uneventfully. One day while walking home alone, I ran past the Radley’s house as I normally do. This time, however, something caught my eye. I took a deep breath, turned around, and went back. Next to the Radley house there were two tall oak trees. One of the trees had a knot-hole and there was some shiny tinfoil sticking out of it. I stuck my hand in the knot-hole and pulled out two pieces of chewing gum (Wrigley’s Double-Mint). I quickly snatched it up and ran home, even though I wanted to cram it into my mouth. Once I got to the porch, I inspected my find. I sniffed and licked it, and when I didn’t die, I put the gum in my mouth. Jem came home and wondered where I got the gum. I finally told him that I found it in the Radley’s tree. Jem yells, “Spit it out right now! Don’t you know you’re not supposed to even touch the trees over there? You’ll get killed if you do!” and I obeyed. Summer was on the way, which was our favorite season. It also meant that Dill was on the way. On the last day of school, we were let out early. As Jem and I walked past the Radley’s oak trees, I saw shiny tinfoil again in the knot-hole. We both ran over, grabbed the prize and hurried home to examine it. It was a small jewelry box covered in tinfoil wrappers. Inside the box were two Indian-head pennies that were really old. Since this was pretty special, I began to think that this knot-hole might be someone’s special hiding place. We tried to think of who walked that way and who might be using this as their hiding spot. We didn’t know if we should keep them or put them back. Jem suggested that they keep them until school starts and then ask everyone if they’re theirs. I noticed Jem looking back at the Radley’s house for a long time and seemed to be real thoughtful. Dill Finally arrives! Miss Rachel picks him up and we meet up with him a little later. Dill suggests picking up where they left off play-acting, but I’m tired of those. I thought it would be fun to roll in the tire. “I’m first!” I announced. I folded myself in the tire and Jem pushed me hard down the sidewalk. I was getting dizzy and couldn’t get it to stop because it was going so fast. I hear Jem yelling behind me. All of a sudden I bumped into something and stopped. I lay on the cement for a while and hear Jem’s voice: “Scout, get away from there, come on!” I opened my eyes and realized I was at the front of the Radley’s steps. Jem came to get me and panicked. We both scurried out of there without the tire. Jem and I argued about who should go back and get the tire. Jem scowled and went back for it. He told me I was acting like a girl and there was nothing to it. Calpurnia called us in for some lemonade. As we enjoyed our lemonade, Jem decided that we should play Boo Radley. What he meant was that we would play act using the Radleys as our characters. All throughout the summer we perfected our act. We added dialogue and made it long. One day when we were rehearsing one act, Atticus watched us. He told us that he hoped we were not pay acting about the Radleys, Jem and I argued over whether or not we should continue acting this out since Atticus told us not to. Atticus’s seeing us do this play-acting was the first reason I wanted to stop doing this. The second reason had to do with what happened earlier that day. After I rolled into the Radley’s yard, I heard not only Jem’s voice yelling but also another sound. It was a soft sound. Someone inside of the house was laughing.
Chapter 5 So, I thought we should stop playing “Boo Radley” because Atticus had warned us not to. Jem said we should just change the names of the characters and then nobody would know! Dill agreed. Dill, by the way, was being annoying. He had asked me earlier in the summer to marry him, then he promptly forgot about it. He had said I was the only girl he would ever love, but then he ignored me. I beat him up twice but it did no good, he kept becoming better friends with Jem. Since Dill and Jem were becoming so close, I was beginning to feel left out. So I spent some time becoming friendly with Miss Maudie Atkinson. Miss Maudie was a nice lady who lived across the street. She had always let us play in her yard, but we had never really been close to her. Now Maudie hated being indoors. She thought that time spent indoors was time wasted. She was a widow who worked in her garden wearing an old straw hat and men’s overalls. She was pretty cool. She was honest, treated us with respect, and didn’t like gossip. One day I noticed that Miss Maudie had two minute gold prongs clipped to her eyeteeth. When I admired them and hoped I would have some eventually, she said, “Look here.” With a click of her tongue she thrust out her dentures. Cool! I think that was her way of letting me know that she really considered me a friend! Miss Maudie made the best cakes in the neighborhood. She would yell, “Jem Finch, Scout Finch, Charles Baker Harris, come here!” That meant that she had baked some small cakes for us, and we went running! One evening I asked, “Miss Maudie, do you think Boo Radley’s still alive?” “His name’s Arthur and he’s alive,” she said. “How do you know?” “What a morbid question. I know he’s alive, Jean Louise, because I haven’t seen anyone carry out a body!” “Jem said that maybe he died and they stuffed him up in the chimney”, I added. Miss Maudie said, “Tsk. Tsk. Jem gets more like Jack Finch every day. They’re both such wise-guys!” Jack Finch was my uncle, Atticus’s brother, and Miss Maudie had known him since they were children. Miss Maudie had grown up near Finch’s Landing and used to play with Jack. Uncle Jack visited our house every Christmas, and every Christmas he yelled across the street for Miss Maudie to come marry him. He was such a jokester! Miss Maudie would call back, “Call a little louder, Jack Finch, and they’ll hear you at the post office!” Miss Maudie continued her answer about Boo Radley. “Arthur Radley just stays in the house, that’s all. Wouldn’t you stay in the house if you didn’t want to come out?” “Yessum, but I’d wanta come out. Why doesn’t he?” Miss Maudie explained that Mr. Radley was a “foot-washing Baptist” which means that he believes anything that’s a pleasure is a sin. She said that some of those Baptists even passed by her house once and told her that she and her flowers were going to hell. They thought that Miss Maudie spent too much time outdoors and not enough time inside the house reading the Bible. Miss Maudie said that these people were taking the Bible too literally. She said, “Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of – oh, of someone like your father.” She also said that “there are just some kind of men who—who’re so busy worrying about the next world that they’ve never learned to enjoy this one. Like the Radleysv.” Miss Maudie said that all the stories about Boo were gossip – from people like Stephanie Crawford, who was always in everybody’s business. She said that she remembered Arthur as a really nice boy. The next day I caught Jem and Dill planning something. They finally told me what it was. They were going to try to get a note to Boo Radley!! They were going to put the note on the end of a fishing pole and stick it through the shutters. If anyone came along the street, Dill would ring the bell to warn Jem. Dill explained what the note said, “We’re askin’ him real politely to come out sometimes, and tell us what he does in there – we said we wouldn’t hurt him and we’d buy him an ice cream.” I told Dill that he and jem were crazy and that Boo would kill us! I was watching Jem try to get the note in the window, when all of a sudden we heard Dill ringing his bell! I thought I would turn around to see Boo Radley with bloody fangs; instead, I saw Dill ringing the bell with all his might in Atticus’s face. Uh, oh!
But Miss Rachel, Dill’s aunt, was very upset. She didn’t think we should be playing poker!! Gambling was a bad thing!! But we said we were only betting with matches, not with real money. So they calmed down a little. Sure, matches were dangerous, but gambling was really dangerous!! Kids shouldn’t be gambling! It is kind of ironic that they’re more concerned about us playing with cards than about us playing with matches!! In the middle of the night, Jem had to sneak out to go back and get his pants, which were still stuck in the Radley’s fence. If he didn’t get the pants back, Atticus would know that Dill’s strip poker excuse wasn’t true. He didn’t want Atticus to find out what he had done because he knew Atticus would be very disappointed in him. Jem said we shouldn’t have gone to the Radley place like that. It was wrong. I was scared to let Jem go back there alone in the middle of the night, but he went anyway. After a while, he came back and crept into bed. Thank goodness! Chapter 7 I left Jem alone when he got back from the Radley’s. I tried to do as Atticus taught me and walk around in Jem’s skin. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to go back to the Radley’s in the middle of the night. I would have been terrified so I let Jem alone. I started school again: the 2nd^ grade. It was just as bad as the first grade. I was still not allowed to read, but one good thing was that I stayed as late as Jem and we walked home together. On our way home one afternoon, Jem told me what happened that night. “When I went back for my breeches – they were all in a tangle when I was getting’ out of ‘em, I couldn’t get them loose. When I went back-“ Jem took a deep breath. “When I went back, they were folded across the fence… like they were expectin’ me.” “Across—“ “And something else – “Jem’s voice was flat. “Show you when we get home. They’d been sewed up. Not like a lady sewed ‘em, like somethin’ I’d try to do. All crooked. It’s almost like – “ “—somebody knew you were comin’ back for ‘em.” Jem shuddered. “Like somebody was readin’ my mind… like somebody could tell what I was gonna do. Can’t anybody tell what I’m gonna do lest they live in the house with you, and even I can’t tell sometimes.” We kept walking and noticed in the knot-hole of the tree that there was a ball of gray twine. I didn’t think we should take it ‘cuz it’s probably someone’s hiding place. Jem and I decided to leave it there for a few days and if it was still there then we’d take it. The next day it was still there so we considered anything else we found there was ours to take from then on. Second grade was not great. Jem told me that you don’t learn anything of value until 6th grade which is what he was in. He was learning about Egyptians and thought they were the smartest since they invented all kinds of great things. One day in October we were walking by the tree in the Radley’s yard and noticed something white in the knot-hole. I pulled out two small images carved in soap. One was the figure of a boy and the other was in a crude dress. Jem told me that he had never seen anything as good as these before. As I looked closer, the boy figure was wearing shorts and this hair fell to his eyebrows. I gazed up at Jem and noticed his hair parted down to his eyebrows too. Jem looked from the girl-doll to me. The goril-doll wore bangs. So did I. “These are us,” he said. “Who did ‘em, you reckon?” “Who do we know around here who whittles?” he asked. “Mr. Avery.” “Mrs. Avery just does like this. I mean carves.” We took the figures home and Jem put them in his trunk. We didn’t’ know who could have done these carvings. A week or so later we found a whole package of chewing gum in the knot-hole, which we enjoyed. The following week we found a tarnished medal. We showed it to Atticus and he said it was a spelling medal, that before we were born the Maycomb County schools had spelling contests and awarded medals to the winners. Atticus told us that someone must have lost it but he didn’t remember anybody who had ever won one.
The biggest treasure we found in the knot-hole came four days later. We found a pocket watch that wouldn’t run, on a chain with an aluminum knife. Atticus thought it would probably be worth ten dollars. Jem thought it would be a good idea if we wrote a letter to whoever’s leaving these things. I thought that would be a nice idea to thank ‘em. “I don’t get it, I just don’t get it – I don’t know why, Scout…” He looked toward the living room. “I’ve gotta good mind to tell Atticus – no, I reckon not.” “He had been on the verge of telling me something all evening; his fact would brighten and he would lean toward me, then he would change his mind. He changed it again. The next morning we took our letter to the knot-hole and were shocked to see it filled with cement. “Don’t you cry, now, Scout…don’t cry now, don’t worry – “ he muttered at me all the way to school. The next day we finally saw Mr. Radley. “Hidy do, Mr. Nathan,“ he said. “Morning Jem, Scout,” said Mr. Radley, as he went by. “Mr. Radley,” said Jem. Mr. Radley turned around. “Mr. Radley, ah – did you put cement in that hole in that tree down yonder?” “Yes,” he said. “I filled it up.” “Why’d you do it, sir?” “Tree’s dying. You plug ‘em with cement when they’re sick. You ought to know that, Jem.” We went on to school not saying a thing. After school we ran into Atticus and Jem asked him, “Atticus, look down yonder at that tree please, sir.” “What tree, son?” “The one on the corner of the Radley lot comin’ from school.” “Yes?” “Is that tree dyin’?” “Why no, son, I don’t think so. Look at the leaves, they’re all green and full, no brown patches anywhere—” “It ain’t even sick?” “That tree’s as healthy as you are, Jem. Why?” “Mr. Nathan Radley said it was dyin’.” “Well maybe it is. I’m sure Mr. Radley knows more about his trees that we do.” Atticus left us then and eventually I told Jem to come on inside. He told me he would after a while. He stood there until nightfall and I noticed when he came in he had been crying, but I thought it odd that I had not heard him. Chapter 8 It was one of the coldest winters Maycomb County had seen in awhile. It as also the winter that Mrs. Radley died. No one really noticed because she was rarely seen. Jem and I thought that Boo had finally gotten her. The next morning I woke up with a fright. I screamed and Atticus came running from the bathroom. “The world’s endin’, Atticus! Please do something—!” I dragged him to the window and pointed. “No it’s not,” he said. “It’s snowing.” The phone rang and Eula May, the telephone operator, called and said there would be no school. Jem and I ran to the backyard and it was covered with a feeble layer of soggy snow. We decided to make a snowman. Atticus didn’t think we’d have enough snow to make a snowball. Miss Maudie yelled over to be careful with her flowers. She was not happy about the snow and was worried about the snow and freeze ruining her azaleas. We asked her if we could borrow some of her snow for our snowman. Jem filled five laundry baskets with earth and two with snow. “Don’t you think this is kind of a mess?” I asked. “Looks messy now, but it won’t later,” he said.
“For a number of reasons,” said Atticus. “The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t even represent this county in legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.” “You mean if you didn’t defend that man, Jem and me wouldn’t have to mind you any more?” “That’s about right.” “Why?” “Because I could never ask you to mind me again. Scout simply because of the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one’s mine, I guess. You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will: you just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t let ‘em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change… it’s a good one even if it does resist learning. “Atticus, are we going to win it?” “No, honey.” “Then why – “ “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win,” Atticus said. I tried to keep this in mind when I wanted to fight Cecil Jacobs in the schoolyard. I knew that if I did fight him, I would be letting Atticus down. Christmas was coming and I felt mixed about it. On the good side, Uncle Jack Finch was coming and he would spend a week with us. On the bad side, we would have to see Aunt Alexandra and Francis. We went to Finch’s Landing every Christmas day. I didn’t like spending time with Francis. He was a year older than I and I avoided him. Aunt Alexandra was Atticus’s sister and Francis was her grandson. I was sure she was swapped at birth and that my grandparents had gotten the wrong child. Uncle Jack was the baby of the family. We were on our way to pick up Uncle Jack at the train station on Christmas Eve. He had two packages with him. I was curious about what they were. When we got home we decorated the tree until bedtime. The next morning we dived for the packages. They were from Atticus. He had Uncle Jack get them for us. We had asked for them – air rifles. We got to Finch’s Landing. I asked Francis what he got for Christmas. “Just what I asked for,” he said. Francis had requested a pair of knee-pants, a red leather booksack, five shirts and an untied bow tie. “That’s nice,” I lied. “Jem and me got air rifles, and Jem got a chemistry set – “ “A toy one, I reckon.” “No, a real one.” He’s gonna make me some invisible ink and I’m gonna write to Dill in it.” Francis was such a boring child. He told Aunt Alexandra everything he knew and Aunt Alexandra then told Atticus. She didn’t like the way I dressed in overalls and that I couldn’t possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches. Aunt Alexandra’s vision of me involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born. Francis really got me angry. First he talked bad about Dill and then about Atticus defending Tom Robinson. “Grandma says it’s bad enough he lets you run wild, but now he’s turned out a n****r-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again. He’s ruinin’ the family, that’s what he’s doin’.” I got so mad at him I chased him to the kitchen that is separate from the house. He kept calling Atticus a “n****r-lover” and I had to punch him in the face. I got punished by Uncle Jack and told him I hated him. He didn’t listen to my side of the sotry. I ran to Atticus for comfort and finally told Uncle Jack my side of the story. Uncle Jack got real mad at Francis when he found out what he had said about Atticus. He was going to tell Atticus, but I begged him not to. I would prefer him to think that Francis and I fought over something else. Later when Atticus and Jack were talking, Jack didn’t tell Atticus the specifics of his and my conversation, but he did say that he learned a lot from me today. He was also upset that Jem and I were going to have to learn about some ugly things in our lives. Atticus hoped that Jem and I would go to him to get answers about what is going to happen in the trial rather than learning it from the town.
Chapter 10 Atticus was old and feeble: he was nearly fifty. Jem and I were disappointed that he wasn’t more like the younger fathers in Maycomb. Atticus was always too tired to play football with Jem like the other dads. He wore glasses because he was nearly blind in his left eye. When he gave us our air-rifles Atticus wouldn’t teach us to shoot. Uncle Jack taught us and explained that Atticus wasn’t interested in guns. Atticus said to Jem one day, “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Later I asked Miss Maudie why Atticus said that. She said, “Your father’s right. Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens; they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” I complained to Miss Maudie that Atticus was too old to do anything. She said that he was a great lawyer and the best checker-player in town and that I should be proud of him. One day Jem and I were walking down the street with our new air-rifles and Jem spotted something. “Whatcha looking at?” I asked. “That old dog down yonder,” he said. “That’s Harry Johnson’s dog who’s named Tim Johnson, ain’t it?” The dog was acting strangely, and Jem got worried, thinking it might have rabies. He called to Cal to come out in the street to look at the dog. When Calpurnia saw the dog, she was sure it had rabies. She called on the telephone to Atticus’s office. “Mr. Finch! This is Cal. I swear to God there’s a mad dog down the street a piece
- he’s comin’ this way – it’s old Tim Johnson.” Then Cal called the operator and asked her to call Miss Rachel (Dill’s aunt) and Miss Stephanie Crawford and anyone else on the street to warn them to lock their doors and stay inside. It is very dangerous for anyone to be bitten by a dog with rabies. Mr. Heck Tate was the sheriff of Maycomb County. He showed up with a rifle. Atticus showed up as well. The dog was pretty far down the street, but it was headed towards the Finch’s place. Atticus told Heck that he better go ahead and shoot the dog – put it out of its misery. But Heck handed the rifle to Atticus and said, “Take him, Mr. Finch.” Jem and I couldn’t believe that Heck would want our father to try to shoot!! Atticus said, “Don’t be silly, Heck. You shoot him.” “Mr. Finch, this is a one-shot job.” Atticus shook his head vehemently. “Don’t just stand there, Heck! He won’t wait all day for you—“ Heck said, “For God’s sake, Mr. Finch, look where he is! If I miss, the bullet will go straight into the Radley house! I can’t shoot that well and you know it!” Atticus replied, “I haven’t shot a gun in thirty years – “ Mr. Tate almost threw the rifle at Atticus. “I’d feel mighty comfortable if you did now,” he said. Jem and I watched our father take the gun and walk out into the middle of the street. He walked quickly, but I felt like I was watching the whole thing in slow motion. I couldn’t understand why the sheriff would want Atticus to do the shooting. Atticus pushed his glasses to his forehead; they slipped down, and he dropped them in the street. In the silence, I heard them crack. Atticus rubbed his eyes and chin; we saw him blink hard. With movements so swift they seemed simultaneous, Atticus’s hand yanked a ball-tipped lever as he brought the gun to his shoulder. The rifle cracked. Tim Johnson leaped, flopped over and crumpled on the sidewalk in a brown-and-white heap. He died instantly. Atticus had shot him right between the eyes! Mr. Tate said, “You haven’t forgot much, Mr. Finch. You’re still a great shooter.” Miss Maudie yelled across the street, “I saw that, One – Shot Finch!” Jem was totally stunned! So was I. Mr. Tate saw our shock and said, “What’s the matter with you, boy, can’t you talk? Didn’t you know your daddy’s – “ Atticus interrupted, “Hush, Heck. Let’s go back to work.”
“Why’d you do it?” Jem said softly, “She said you lawed for n****s and trash.” Jem was obviously feeling really bad about what he had done. He had his head down. Atticus said, “I understand that people have been giving you a hard time about the fact that I’m defending Tom Robinson, but to do something like this to a sick old lady is inexcusable. I strongly advise you to go down and have a talk with Mrs. Dubose. Come straight home afterward.” Once Jem had gone, Atticus and I talked. He said, “Scout, when summer comes you’ll have to keep your head about far worse things because that’s when Tom Robinson’s trial will be. I know it’s not fair to you and Jem, but sometimes we have to make the best of things, and I have to defend Tom Robinson because it’s the right thing to do. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do the right thing. Even though other people might think I’m wrong for defending a black man, I know that it’s right. When Jem came back, he told us that Mrs. Dubose wanted Jem to read out loud to her as punishment for what he had done. He had to go every afternoon and Saturdays for one month and read out loud for two hours each time. Atticus said that Jem would have to go. So I went to Mrs. Dubose’s house with Jem. Mrs. Dubose was in bed, and for a minute I felt kind of sorry for her, until she said, “So you brought that dirty little sister of yours, did you?” Jem began reading and Mrs. Dubose would correct him sometimes. But after a while, we noticed that she wasn’t listening. She seemed to be in a lot of pain or something and kind of unconscious. Then the alarm clock went off, Jessie her helper came in and told us that it was time for her medicine and that we could go home. We noticed that this same thing happened each day, except the alarm clock would go off later and later. One day I asked Atticus what “N****r-lover” meant because Mrs. Dubose had called him that once. Atticus said, “Scout, n****r-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything— like snot-nose. It’s hard to explain—ignorant, trashy people us it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It’s an ugly work to use, and you or I should never say it.” We finally finished our month of reading to Mrs. Dubose. One day a month later Atticus was called down to Mrs. Dubose’s house and he came back carrying a box. He told us that Mrs. Dubose had died. He said that she had been sick for a long time and that her “fits” (when she would seem to be in pain and go unconscious) were because she had been addicted to morphine, a pain killer. She was trying to break this addiction before she died. Most people would have just kept taking the morphine so they wouldn’t have to be in pain during the last months of their life, but she wanted to die free of an addiction. So, when she had Jem read to her, it was meant to distract her from the pain that not taking the morphine caused. She would take the morphine later and later every day, which is why we had to read later and later before the alarm went off. Atticus handed Jem the box he had brought back. In it was a beautiful camellia flower. Jem thought she had sent it to him to be mean, but really she was trying to say that she forgave him. Atticus said, “You know, she was a great lady.” Jem asked, “How could you call her a lady after all those terrible things she said about you?!” “She was a lady. She had her own view about things, a lot different from mine, maybe…son, I wanted you to read to her because I wanted you to learn something from her. I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. She broke her addiction to morphine, which was a very hard thing to do. She was the bravest person I ever knew.” Jem burned the box, but he kept touching the flower petals all night.
Part 2 Chapter 12 Jem was twelve. He was getting so moody and hard to live with. After Mrs. Dubose had been dead for a couple of weeks, he started changing and telling me what to do. Jem hollered, “It’s time you started bein’ a girl and acting right!” I burst into tears and ran to Calpurnia. Calpurnia told me not to fret, that he was growing up. She even started calling him Mister Jem like he was a grown up. I spend a lot of time with Calpurnia waiting for summer when Dill would come to Maycomb. Summer came and Dill had not come. Dill sent a letter and said that he had a new father and that he would have to stay in Meridian. The state legislature was called to an emergency session and Atticus left us for two weeks. One Sunday we went with Calpurnia to her church. She got us all clean and spent time going over our clothes. My dress had so much starch in it, it came up like a tent when I sat down. “It’s like we were goin’ to Mardi Gras,” said Jem. “What’s all this for, Cal?” “I don’t want anybody sayin’ I don’t look after my children,” she muttered. “Mister Jem, you absolutely can’t wear that tie with that suit. It’s green.” Calpurnia took us to First Purchase African M.E. Church. It was called First Purchase because it was paid for from the first earnings of freed slaves. Negroes worshipped in it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays. As we entered the churchyard, the men stepped back and took off their hats and the women crossed their arms at their wrists. They made a pathway for us. A woman’s voice came from behind us, “What you up to, Miss Cal?” “What you want, Lula?” she asked in a tone I had never heard. “I wants to know why you bringin’ white chillun to a n****r church.” “They’s my comp’ny,” said Calpurnia. Again I thought her voice was strange: she was talking like the rest of them. “Yeah, an’ I reckon you’s comp’ny at the Finch house durin’ the week.” “Don’t you fret,” Calpurnia whispered to me and then said to Lula, “Stop right there, n****r.” Lula stopped and said, “You ain’t got no business bringing’ white chillun here – they got their church, we got our’n. It is our church, ain’t it, Miss Cal?” We told Calpurnia that we wanted to go home that we weren’t welcome here. When I looked up Calpurnia had amusement in her eyes and others were coming toward us. Lula was gone and we were surrounded by others. One of them, Zeebo, said to not pay attention to Lula and that they were glad to have us there. Inside church service was beginning. Reverend Sykes started by making some announcements. I noticed that there were no hymnals and when I went to ask Calpurnia about it, she told me to be quiet. Reverend Sykes said that they would be taking up a collection today and for the next three Sundays for Tom Robinson to help out his wife, Helen, and family. Reverend Sykes said that we would begin services by singing hymn number two seventy- three. This was too much for me.. “How’re we gonna sing it if there ain’t no hymn books?” Calpurnia smiled. “Hush baby,” she whispered, “you’ll see in a minute.” Zeebo cleared this throat and read in a voice like the rumble of distant artillery, “There’s a land beyond the river.” Miraculously on pitch, a hundred voices sang out Zeebo’s words. The last syllable, held to a hum, was followed by Zeebo saying, “That we call the sweet forever.” Music again swelled around us: the last note lingered and Zeebo met it with the next line. Reverend Sykes went into his sermon and after that came the collection. After the coffee can went around the church, Reverend Sykes emptied the coins into his hand and announced that it was not enough. He said that we must have ten dollars. He even had one of the church members close the doors until we had the ten dollars collected. We put in our dimes. Slowly and painfully the ten dollars was collected. At the end of service when we were all leaving, Reverend Sykes said to us, “We were ‘specially glad to have you all here,” said Reverend Sykes. “The church has no better friend than your daddy.”
Chapter 13 Aunt Alexandra had Calpurnia put her bags in the front bedroom. The next thing she did was to tell me to stop scratching my head. I asked her if she was just here for a visit and she told us that she and Atticus had decided that she should come stay for awhile. “We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys—“ I thought many things to myself like the fact that I had Cal and that I wouldn’t be interested in boys for many years and that I would never be interested in clothes. But I kept my mouth shut. Later that afternoon Atticus came home. He told us that they had decided it was best for Aunt Alexandra to stay with us. I knew that it was more her idea than it was Atticus’s. She had a way of deciding what was best for the family. Everyone in Maycomb welcomed Aunt Alexandra. Miss Maudie baked a cake, Miss Rachel had her over for coffee, and Mr. Nathan Radley came in the front yard and said he was glad to see her. Life resumed as if she had always lived with us. Aunt Alexandra never missed a chance to point out the shortcomings of others. Everyone in Maycomb seemed to have a Streak: A Drinking Streak, a Gambling Streak, a Mean Streak, a Funny Streak. She was also very occupied with heredity: who came from what family. I had received the impression the Fine Folks were people who did the best they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it was. Some afternoons Aunty had the Maycomb ladies over. “Jean Louise, come speak to these ladies.” When I came to the doorway, Aunt Alexandra looked like she almost regretted calling me over because I usually was mud-splattered or dirty. “Speak to your Cousin Lily,” she said one afternoon, when she had trapped me in the hall. “Who?” I said. “Your Cousin Lily Brooke,” said Aunt Alexandra. “She our cousin? I didn’t know that.” Aunt Alexandra managed to smile to Cousin Lily that conveyed a gentle apology to her and a firm disapproval to me. I knew I was in for it when Cousin Lily Left. That night Atticus came into Jem’s room where we both were. He was uncomfortable and tried to tell us something. “Your aunt has asked me to try and impress upon you and Jean Louise that you are not from run-of-the-mill people, that you are the product of several generations gentle breeding – “ Atticus paused. “Gentle bredding,” he continued, “and that you should try to live up to your name—“ Atticus persevered in spite of us: “She asked me to tell you you must try to behave like the little lady and gentleman that you are. She wants to talk to you about the family and what it’s meant to Maycomb County through the years, so you’ll have some idea of who you are, so you might be moved to behave accordingly,” he concluded at a gallop. Stunned, Jem and I looked at each other and then at Atticus who was very uncomfortable. I started to cry because this was not my father who thought these things. Aunt Alexandra told him to do this. I went to hug him and worried that all this behavin’ was going to change things and I said so. Atticus told me not to worry. I asked, “You really want us to do all that? I can’t remember everything Finches are supposed to do…” “I don’t want you to remember it. Forget it.” He left Jem’s room. Chapter 14 One day I was in town with Jem and I overheard people talking about Atticus and how he was defending Tom Robinson who had been accused of raping a white woman. I went home and asked Atticus what “rape” meant. He said it was carnal knowledge of a female by force and without consent. I didn’t know what he meant by that!
I told him that Calpurnia didn’t tell me what it meant when we went to church. I also told him that Cal said I could go to their house some time to visit her. Aunt Alexandra, who was sitting with us knitting said, “You may NOT!” I got so mad! I yelled, “I didn’t ask YOU!” Atticus jumped out of his chair and said, “You apologize to your aunt.” I argued, “But I didn’t ask her, I asked you.” Atticus said, “First, apologize to your aunt.” “I’m sorry, Aunty,” I muttered. Atticus said, “Now then. Let’s get this clear: you do as Calpurnia tells you, you do as I tell you, and as long as your aunt’s in this house, you will do as she tells you. Understand?” I nodded and went to the bathroom. But I overheard Atticus and Aunt Alexandra talking after I left. Aunt Alexandra was saying that Atticus better do something about me. I wasn’t acting like a lady at all and that Atticus should fire Calpurnia because they didn’t need her anymore. Atticus said, “Alexandra, Cal’s not leaving this house until she wants to. You may think otherwise, but we really need her and she is a great person who feels like a member of our family. She’s done a great job of helping me raise the children.” Later Jem told me to try not to annoy Aunty. I got so mad because he was trying to tell me what to do again. But Jem explained that we shouldn’t do anything that would upset Atticus because he’s got a lot on his mind. He’s worried about the Tom Robinson case. Jem said, “Now I mean it , Scout, you bother Aunty and I’ll – I’ll spank you.” “You damn morphodite, I’ll kill you!” I yelled. I was so mad that he was treating me like a little kid. We got in a fight and were punching and kicking. Finally Atticus came in and broke up the fight. Later that night I stepped on something near my bed and thought it was a snake. I went to get Jem to check. When he looked under there, he found DILL!!! He was dirty and hungry. He told this ridiculous story about how he had been tied up with chains in his basement by his new father and was kept alive by peas that a passing farmer would sneak in the window for him. Dill said he had pulled the chains from the wall and escaped. He wandered two miles and found a traveling animal show where he got a job washing a camel. He traveled all over Alabama with the show until his infallible sense of direction told him that he was right near Maycomb. So he walked to Jem and Scout’s house. Jem knew he was lying so Dill said that really he had taken $13 from his mother’s purse and took a train from Meridian to somewhere near Maycomb. He had walked ten or eleven miles toward Maycomb and then rode the rest of the way, clinging to the back of a wagon. Jem said that Dill’s folks and aunt would be worried about him, so they should tell Atticus. When Atticus came in the room, Dill said, “Mr. Finch, don’t tell Aunt Rachel, don’t make me go back, PLEASE sir! I’ll run off again --! Atticus said, “Whoa, son. Nobody’s about to make you go anywhere but to bed pretty soon. I’m just going over to tell Miss Rachel you’re here and ask her if you could spend the night with us
- you’d like that , wouldn’t you? And for goodness sake put some of the county back where it belongs, you’ve got so much dirt on you!!” Later that night I went to talk to Dill. I asked him why he ran away. He said that his parents weren’t really mean to him, it’s just that they weren’t interested in him. They were always out, or if they were home they would be by themselves, not playing with him. Dill said, “They ain’t mean. They buy me everything I want, but then they expect me to just go off by myself and play with the toys they bought. Oh, they ain’t mean. They kiss you and hug you good night and good mornin’ and good-bye and tell you they love you – Scout, let’s get us a baby.” “Where?” Dill said there was a man he had heard of who had a boat that he rowed across to a foggy island where all these babies were; you could order one – I interrupted him by saying, “That’s a lie. Aunty said God drops ‘em down the chimney. At least that’s what I think she said.” “Well that ain’t so,” said Dill. “you get babies from each other. But there’s this man, too – he has all these babies just waitin’ to wake up, he breathes life into ‘em.” As we were drifting off to sleelp I said, “Dill, why do you figure Boo Radley has never run away?”
going to run to him but Jem stopped me. He said that Atticus would not like us being here. We were turning to leave and saw four cars moving slowly in line stop in front of the jail. Atticus seemed to have been expecting them. In ones and twos, men got out of the cars. Atticus remained where he was. The men hid from view. “He in there, Mr. Finch?” a man said. “He is,” we heard Atticus answer, “and he’s asleep. Don’t wake him up.” The men talked in near-whispers. “You know what we want,” another man said. “Get aside from the door, Mr. Finch.” “You can turn around and go home again, Walter,” Atticus said pleasantly. “Heck Tate’s around somewhere.” “The hell he is,” said another man. “Heck’s bunch’s so deep in the woods they won’t get out till mornin’.” “Indeed? Why do?” “Called ’em off on a snipe hunt,” was the succinct answer. “Didn’t you think a’ that, Mr. Finch?” “Thought about it, but didn’t believe it. Well then,” my father’s voice was still the same, “that changes things, doesn’t it?” “It do,” another deep voice said. Its owner was a shadow. “Do you really think so?” I broke away from Jem and ran to Atticus as fast as I could. I pushed my way through the dark smelly bodies and burst into the circle of light. “H’ey Atticus!” A flash of plain fear was in his eyes and Jem and Dill wriggled into the light too. There was a smell of stale whiskey and pigpen. I looked around and did not notice these men. These men were not the same men as the other night. Atticus got up from his chair. “Go home, Jem,” he said. “Take Scout and Dill home.” The way Jem was standing he was not thinking of budging. “Go home, I said.” Jem shook his head. “Son, I said go home.” Jem shook his head agin. “I’ll send him home,” a burly man said, and grabbed Jem roughly by the collar. He yanked Jem nearly off his feet. “Don’t you touch him!” I kicked the man swiftly. I was surprised to see him fall back in real pain. I intended to kick his shin, but aimed too high. Atticus told me that will do and said that I shouldn’t kick folks. “All right, Mr. Finch, get ‘em outta here,” someone growled. “You got fifteen seconds to get ‘em outta here.” I looked around and saw that most of the men were dressed in overalls and denim shirts buttoned up to the collars even though it was a summer’s night. I sought once more for a familiar face. I found one. “Hey, Mr. Cunningham.” The man did not hear me, it seemed. “Hey, Mr. Cuningham. How’s your entailment getting’ along?” Mr. Walter Cunningham’s legal affairs were well known to me since Atticus had once described them to me at length. The big man blinked at me and hooked his thumbs in his overall straps. He looked away. My friendly overture had fallen flat. “Don’t you remember me, Mrs. Cunningham? I’m Jean Louise Finch. You brought us some hickory nuts one time, remember?” I began to sense the futility one feels when unacknowledged by a chance acquaintance. “I go to school with Walter,” I began again. “He’s your boy, ain’t he? Ain’t he sir?” Mr. Cunningham was moved to a faint nod. He did know me after all. “He’s in my grade,” I said, “and he does right well. He’s a good boy,” I added, “a real nice boy. We brought him home for dinner one time. Maybe he told you about me, I beat him up one time but he was real nice about it. Tell him hey for me, won’t you?”
Atticus had always told me to be polite and to talk to people about things they were interested in. The men were all looking at me. I wondered what idiocy I had committed. I began to feel sweat gathering at the edges of my hair. “What’s the matter?” I asked. Mr. Cunningham did a peculiar thing. He squatted down and took me by both shoulders. “I’ll tell him you said hey, little lady,” he said. Then he straightened up and waved a big paw. “Let’s clear out,” he called. “Let’s get going, boys.” The men shuffled back into their cars and were gone. I turned to Atticus. “Can we go home now?” He nodded. “Mr. Finch? They gone?” “They’ve gone,” he said. “Get some sleep, Tom. They won’t bother you anymore.” From a different direction, another voice cut crisply through the night: “You’re damn tootin’ they won’t. Had you covered all the time, Atticus.” Mr. Underwood and a double-barrelled shotgun were leaning out the window. We started to walk home. Atticus and Jem were ahead of me and Dill. I thought Atticus would give Jem hell for not going home, but I was wrong. Atticus reached out and massaged Jem’s hair, his one gesture of affection. Chapter 16 Atticus drove us home and killed the engine as we approached the house so we wouldn’t wake Aunty. We went to our rooms without a word. I was very tired. I was drifting to sleep when the events of the night hit me and I started crying. Jem came to me and he was awfully nice to me. In the morning, Aunty, who knew about what happened last night, said that children who slipped out at night were a disgrace to the family. Aunty also said that Mr. Underwood was there the whole time and nothing bad would have happened. “You know, it’s a funny thing about Braxton (Mr. Underwood),” said Atticus. “He despises Negroes, won’t have one near him.” Aunty took offense to Atticus saying this comment about Mr. Underwood in front of Calpurnia. “Don’t talk like that in front of them.” “Talk like what in front of whom?” he asked. “Like that in front of Calpurnia. You said Braxton Underwood despises Negroes right in front of her.” “Well, I’m sure Cal knows it. Everybody in Maycomb knows it. Anything fit to say at the table’s fine to say in front of Calpurnia. She knows what she means to this family.” “I don’t think it’s a good habit, Atticus. It encourages them. You know how they talk among themselves. Everything that happens in this town’s out to the Quarters before sundown.” “I don’t know of any law that says they can’t talk. Maybe if we didn’t give them so much to talk about they’d be quiet.” I was playing with my spoon and asked, “I thought Mr. Cunningham was a friend of ours. You told me a long time ago he was.” “He still is.” “But last night he wanted to hurt you.” “Mr. Cunningham’s basically a good man,” he said. “He just has his blind spots along with the rest of us.” Jem spoke. “Don’t call that a blind spot. He’d a’ killed you last night when he first went there.” “He might have hurt me a little,” Atticus conceded, “but son, you’ll understand folks a little better when you’re older. A mob’s always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man. Every mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people, you know – doesn’t say much for them, does it?” “I’ll say not,” said Jem. “So it took an eight-year-old child to bring ‘em to their senses, didn’t it?” said Atticus. “That proves something --- that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they’re still
