TKAMB

Journal #4

Chapters 10, 11, & 12

Perspective: Scout

Atticus was older then most of our contemporaries' fathers. He was old and boring and didn't do what all of the other fathers did.I talked to Miss Maudie and she told me that there was more to him then meets the eye. I didn't believe that until one day, when Jem and I decided to go hunting with our air guns. We saw old Tim Johnson, a dog that belonged to one of the folks from town. We saw him tinkering his way down the path getting closer to us. He looked tired and sick. A sick dog, that wasn't good news. So me and Jem ran home to tell Calpurnia. We told her that we saw Tim Johnson and that he was coming up towards the house. We described to her what he was doing, and she told us he was sick. But from what we saw he didn't seem all that sick, just tired. Cal ran to the phone and called Atticus. She then called the operator, and told her to call anyone who has a phone and warn them about the dog. She asked us if the Radleys had a phone. We looked it up in the phone book and there was no sign of their number. So Cal decided to go over there herself and warn them. Atticus came soon with the sheriff. The sheriff was armed with a gun. Old Tim Johnson came slowly but surely up the path towards the Radley's house. The sheriff was aiming at the dog, but was taking too long to shoot so Atticus took matters into his own hands. He took the gun from the Sheriff, and without a hesitation or a thought he killed the dog in a split second. Atticus's accuracy was one thing that surprised me about what had just happened. I had no clue Atticus knew even how to hold a gun. Later on I talked to Miss Maudie about this. She told me that that my father ad been the greatest gunman and hunter of his time They called him Ol' one shot. Ever since that they I saw my father in a whole new light.

Jem had just turned twelve and we decided to go down to the store since his pockets were hot with money. He bought himself a steam engine toy, and he then bought me a baton I had been wantin' for a long time. On our way back home we passed by Miss Dubose's house. Miss Dubose was a cranky old lady who yelled ugly things about our mother, Atticus and me and Jem. Jem had promised Atticus on no matter what circumstances Jem would be a gentleman when people said hate comments about Atticus to us. Jem promised. But under these circumstances Jem would have to break his promise. Once miss Dubose left her porch, Jem snatched my baton from and ran into her yard. He started smashing all of her plants and bushes with my baton as if it were a machete. He had gone ballistic. Once he was done with his rampage on the garden he took my baton and broke it in half and threw it on the ground. As we walked home he was silent. When we got home Atticus wasn't there. When Atticus came home he brought with him the broken baton. He told Jem to go to Miss Dubose and apologize. When Jem came home he told us that she wanted him to read to her for a month everyday, for about two hours. Atticus told him he had to do that. So everyday for a month I went along with Jem. When Jem would read to her she would listen at first, and criticize and comment on what Jem was reading to her. After a while though she would fall silent and start to have fits of spasms. That really scared me. Soon came the day when Jem and I no longer had to visit her. We were so happy. A month later we got a phone call. Atticus had to go and visit Miss Dubose. He finally came home late at night bearing the sad news of her death. Not only did he bring us bad news but he had brought home a candy box from Miss Dubose to Jem. Inside was one of the flowers that Jem had wrecked about a month before, In the end, I decided Miss Dubose wasn't a bad person after all.

Atticus has left us alone before. When Atticus left for one week Calpurnia stayed with us. On Sunday we went to her negroe church. Jem and I dressed up like how we would normally dress up if we went to church. When we got there something had changed about Calpurnia. She started to talk in black slang like all of the other people. I wonder why she didn't talk to them like how she talks to us at home. We were welcomed warmly by everyone, except for one lady. The Sunday service was similar to ours. Everything was pretty much the same. Almost everything. Calpurnia's church didn't have hymn books. So I asked her they were supposed t sing hymns if they didn't have any books. She told to watch and see. I was amazed at what had happened. Every single on of the people in the church new the hymns without even looking in a book. I later asked Calpurnia why they didn't have books. She sad that the church didn't have money to get the books. Plus even if there was enough money there would be no use in getting the books becuase none of them could read. Accept for Calpurnia and a selected few. Calpurnia had grown up on Finch's Landing and was taught how to read. She had also taught her son Zeebo how to read. After church we walked back home only to be met by an unpleasant surprise. Aunt Alexandra.