Chapter 2 from To Kill A Mockingbird

Jem condescended to take me to school the first day, a job usually done by one’s parents, but Atticus had said Jem would be delighted to show me where my room was.

Jem condescended to take me to school the first day, a job usually done by one’s parents, but Atticus had said Jem would be delighted to show me where my room was.

I think some money changed hands in this transaction, for as we trotted around the corner past the Radley Place I heard an unfamiliar jingle in Jem’s pockets.

The class murmured apprehensively, should she prove to harbor her share of the peculiarities indigenous to that region.

The class murmured apprehensively, should she prove to harbor her share of the peculiarities indigenous to that region.

Miss Caroline seemed unaware that the ragged, denim-shirted and floursack-skirted first grade, most of whom had chopped cotton and fed hogs from the time they were able to walk, were immune to imaginative literature.

I mumbled that I was sorry and retired meditating upon my crime.

I mumbled that I was sorry and retired meditating upon my crime.

I never deliberately learned to read, but somehow I had been wallowing illicitly in the daily papers.

No comment seemed to be expected of us, and the class received these impressionistic revelations in silence.

Impatience crept into Miss Caroline’s voice: “Here Walter, come get it.”

I turned around and saw most of the town people and the entire bus delegation looking at me.

“I beg your pardon, Jean Louise?”

My special knowledge of the Cunningham tribe—one branch, that is—was gained from events of last winter.

After a dreary conversation in our livingroom one night about his entailment, before Mr. Cunningham left he said, “Mr. Finch, I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to pay you.”

Entailment was only a part of Mr. Cunningham’s vexations.

The acres not entailed were mortgaged to the hilt, and the little cash he made went to interest.

If I could have explained these things to Miss Caroline, I would have saved myself some inconvenience and Miss Caroline subsequent mortification, but it was beyond my ability to explain things as well as Atticus, so I said, “You’re shamin‘ him, Miss Caroline.

If I could have explained these things to Miss Caroline, I would have saved myself some inconvenience and Miss Caroline subsequent mortification, but it was beyond my ability to explain things as well as Atticus, so I said, “You’re shamin‘ him, Miss Caroline.

My sojourn in the corner was a short one.