TKAM+Entry+2

Scout

My name is Scout, I am in second grade, live in Alabama with Jem (my older brother) and Atticus (my father). For only being a second grader, I have had a lot of different experiences. There are so many I don't know which one to talk about, so I will write about several of them.

One experience I had was when Dill came to visit for the summer. Dill is a relative of one of my neighbors. I had a lot of interesting experiences when he was here. I first met him when Jem and I heard something in a bush. We thought it was a dog. He is from Meridian, Mississippi and was here for the summer. We became friends quickly.

Another experience was the Radley’s. We got in some situations because of them. There was when I rolled into the Radley's yard in a tire. Another thing was when Jem tried to stick a note to the Radley's window. Then Atticus came and s,aw us doing this and was not happy. There was the time we were playing the Boo Radley game. This was a game about Boo Radley’s life. Atticus came home and found us and forbade us to play it again. He said he did not want us putting Boo Radley’s life on display for the whole neighborhood. I did not want to do this, but Dill and Jem made me.

There was the time we were going to look in the Radley house. We were on the back porch and saw a figure. We then began to run through the back yard and under the fence. Jem got stuck under the fence and lost his pants (this was scary but funny too). At some point Mr. Radley fired a shot. When we got back to our yard we went back to the Radley house with everybody. They said he shot at someone in his collard patch. They said he would shoot anything he saw in his patch. The people then noticed Jem did not have any pants on. Dill came to his rescue and said he had won them playing strip poker by the fish pool. Later that night, about 2 A.M., Jem went back to get his pants. I thought he was going to get caught because I heard Atticus stir and I thought he was going to get up. When Jem came back he got right into bed. I later asked him what happened. He said he got his pants back, but they were folded, fixed, and hung over the fence. I did not know what to think about this

There was the time it snowed for the first time in years. We did not have school and made a snowman. It looked like Mr. Avery, and we got in trouble and had to change it. Our neighbor, Miss Maudie, let us borrow her hat and then we fixed it and it did not get us in trouble. Miss Maudie did not like the snow, I don't know why because I sure thought it was great.

That night Miss Maudie’s house burnt down. Atticus woke us up and told us to go stand in front of the Radley’s house. At some point one of the Radley’s put a blanket over me. Surprisingly, Miss Maudie was not to sad her house burnt down. She said she did not like her house. She said she would build a new house and have the best yard. I think she did not like her house because she thought it was too big.

Another event was the tree. There was a tree in the corner of the Radley lot. It had a hole in it. In the hole we would always find different things. We found anything from gum to a pocket watch. Then one day the hole was filled up with cement. We asked Mr. Radley and he said the tree was sick and that was what you did to sick trees. This made us sad since we would not find anything else in the tree. I was sad about this and could see Jem cried over it.

We got guns for Christmas that year and Atticus said he did not like guns, so our uncle had to teach us how to use them. One day, we saw a sick dog walking down the road. We went home and our maid called the sheriff. He came with Atticus and said he could not shoot the dog. Atticus had to shoot and kill the dog with one shot. Miss Maudie said he used to be the best shot in town and we did not know why he never told us about his talent. I wanted to tell people about this, but Jem would not let me.

Another experience that hit close to home for me is Atticus's current case. He is defending a man named Tom Robinson, and the town was not happy. I got in trouble for beating up Cecil Jacobs. He made me mad, because he made fun of Atticus. He said "Scout Finch's daddy defended niggers." This made me mad and he was not the only person that said that.  This made me really mad and I had to hold back from fighting more people. I really don't understand why some people are mad at Atticus for working on Tom Robinson's case.

Those are just some of my experiences, and all I have time for in this journal entry.