To Kill A Mockingbird (Chapter 5)

Dill was in hearty agreement with this plan of action.

He had asked me earlier in the summer to marry him, then he promptly forgot about it.

But I kept aloof from their more foolhardy schemes for a while, and on pain of being called a girl, I spent most of the remaining twilights that summer sitting with Miss Maudie Atkinson on her front porch.

But I kept aloof from their more foolhardy schemes for a while, and on pain of being called a girl, I spent most of the remaining twilights that summer sitting with

But I kept aloof from their more foolhardy schemes for a while, and on pain of being called a girl, I spent most of the remaining twilights that summer sitting with

Until Jem and Dill excluded me from their plans, she was only another lady in the neighborhood, but a relatively benign presence.

Until Jem and Dill excluded me from their plans, she was only another lady in the neighborhood, but a relatively benign presence.

Our tacit treaty with Miss Maudie was that we could play on her lawn, eat her scuppernongs if we didn't jump on the arbor, and explore her vast back lot, terms so generous we seldom spoke to her, so careful were we to preserve the delicate balance of our relationship, but Jem and Dill drove me closer to her with their behavior.

She was a widow, a chameleon lady who worked in her flower beds in an old straw hat and men's coveralls, but after her five o'clock bath she would appear on the porch and reign over the street in magisterial beauty.

I asked, after witnessing a prolonged campaign against a blade not three inches high.

When it comes fall this dries up and the wind blows it all over Maycomb County! Miss Maudie's face likened such an occurrence unto an Old Testament pestilence.

Her speech was crisp for a Maycomb County inhabitant.

"What a morbid question.

"Where did you get such a notion?"

How so reasonable a creature could live in peril of everlasting torment was incomprehensible.

How so reasonable a creature could live in peril of everlasting torment was incomprehensible.

"Gracious child, I was raveling a thread, wasn't even thinking about your father, but now that I am I'll say this: Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets.

Dill and Jem emerged from a brief huddle: "If you stay you've got to do what we tell you," Dill warned.

Jem said placidly, "We are going to give a note to Boo Radley."

If he wanted to stay inside his own house he had the right to stay inside free from the attentions of inquisitive children, which was a mild term for the likes of us.

Mr. Radley did might seem peculiar to us, but it did not seem peculiar to him.

"No," said Atticus, "putting his life's history on display for the edification of the neighborhood."