TKAM 1-10

"Mr. Nathan was at the fire," he babbled, "I saw him, I saw him, he was tuggin' that mattress - Atticus, I swear .

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

But by the end of August our repertoire was vapid from countless reproductions, and it was then that Dill gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.

"Now don't you fret, ma'am," he said.

The sixth grade seemed to please him from the beginning: be went through a brief Egyptian Period that baffled me-he tried to walk flat a great deal, sticking one arm in front of him and one in back of him, putting one foot behind the other.

Microscopic grains oozed out.

You look right puny for goin' on seven."

Through all the head-shaking, quelling of nausea and Jem-yelling, I had heard another sound, so low I could not have heard it from the sidewalk.

The back of the Radley house was less inviting than the front: a ramshackle porch ran the width of the house; there were two doors and two dark windows between the doors.

Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us, not waiting to see if his foray was successful.

Mr. Avery averaged a stick of stovewood per week; he honed it down to a toothpick and chewed it.

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

Boo bit it off one night when he couldn't find any cats and squirrels to eat.); she sat in the living room and cried most of the time, while Boo slowly whittled away all the furniture in the house.

"Don't blame me when he gouges your eyes out.

Soft taffeta-like sounds and muffled scurrying sounds filled me with helpless dread.

He went in the house, returned with the laundry hamper, filled it with earth and carried it to the front yard.

There was a long jagged sear that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.

Jem decided there was no point in quibbling, and was silent.

So Simon, having forgotten his teacher's dictum on the possession of human chattels, bought three slaves and with their aid established a homestead on the banks of the Alabama River some forty miles above Saint Stephens.

One time I asked her to have a chew and she said no thanks, that---chewing gum cleaved to her palate and rendered her speechless," said Jem carefully.