Scout's diary 6

Aug 30, 1937

  Dill is leaving tomorrow. I know I’m going to miss him even though he likes to play with Jem more often now. In the evening, they said that they were going to go for a walk. I knew that their plans weren’t that simple. I asked them where they were going and Jem told me that I didn’t need to go with them using a soft tone of voice. I was sure that they were going to do something (I ready know your trick, Jem.). Finally, they told me that they were going to peep in Radley’s house from the window. I thought they were completely stupid and unaware of what they were getting themselves into. They were too curious to even consider whether what they were about to do was right or wrong. They completely forgot about the talk Atticus gave us about being impolite.

I tried to stop them but Jem told me to hush up again. We went in from the high wire fence at the rear of Radley’s lot. It took us some time to get near the house without people seeing us. We couldn’t see anything from the window which we planned to peep in from, so Jem decided to try the back window. When Jem crawled up close to the window, a shadow of a man with a hat moved towards Jem. The three of us were so shocked we just ran away. Jem ended up losing his pants when we were on the run. After we got home, Jem said that he would go get his pants back and told me to wait for him at home. I was afraid that Jem might get killed by Mr. Radley. I laid in bed waiting for Jem. After he came home, he didn’t say a word and I thought to myself that he just needed time to calm down. Something must’ve happened to Jem but I didn’t want to make him tell me at the time. I hope he’ll come to me and learn to trust me.