Journal #3

Journal #3

Chapters 8 & 9

Perspective: Atticus

I didn’t want to be stern with my children but all the Radley nonsense was starting to bother me. It was only a few weeks ago when they asked if I saw Mr. Arthur Radley when I went to the house because Mrs. Radley had died. Jem is a smart boy though and could tell I didn’t want them touching around the subject much longer, and besides the next morning the Radley’s were the last thing on their minds. Screams brought me running to Scout in the morning and it took some of my control to not start laughing and explain to her calmly that the world was not ending, but Maycomb had snow for the first time in a long while. My kids questioned me on how to make a snowman but not ever being around snow myself I couldn’t give them a good answer. They called me at work later in the day to report a surprise and I could already start to guess what it might be. The back yard was torn up when I got home but they had made a nice snowman in much likeliness of our neighbor, Mr. Avery. The snow covered the whole world in a blanket of white and cold. I continually added coals onto the fires to keep it going, but in the morning we awoke to the fright of not needing to.

There was a fire right across the street at Ms. Maudie’s! Blazin’ through the walls and up through the house. I made Jem and Scout stand over by the Radley house, in evasion of the fire. Then I ran with the rest of the men to save her furniture, taking out her ol’ favorite rocking chair first. Soon though the fire was going through to the upstairs and almost getting Mr. Avery stuck. We all cleared out and watched as he slid down a pillar to the ground, groaning when he reached it. I personally wouldn’t have advised it though ‘cause of his age, and I believe everyone else unanimous in that thought too. Soon fire trucks were comin’ from all over and dousing the flames with the water from the hydrants. Soon we were stamping out fires too, for our house had gotten some of the flame. Ms. Maudie’s house’s roof then teetered for a moment before chunks of wood fell and the house crumbled. The fire’s tyranny was soon put to an end, and the last flames were doused. A little while later, just as the sky started to lighten the fire trucks left and we went inside for hot cocoa.

We sipped hot coca a while before I finally took a good look at Jem and Scout. My voice rose with sternness as I questioned her on the blanket she was clutching tightly around herself. She looked puzzled and hurt, like I had been quibbling before, but she then looked down and became shocked. Someone must have put it around her because she assured me that she and Jem had stayed put. Jem started mumbling all kinds of nonsense then and when I asked him to slow and calm down he did, and when we thought about it a little bit more we finally came to the conclusion that it must have been Boo Radley watching out for the children. Unfortunately, this just seemed to start their imaginations with all the Radley nonsense again. I just hope they don’t go tormenting that man anymore.