Chapter 26 Chapter Twenty Six

School started and we started passing the Radleys every day again.Jem entered seventh grade and went to high school, just behind elementary school.I'm in 3rd grade now and our routines are so out of step, I just go to school with him in the morning and don't see him until mealtime.He joined the football team, but because of his thin build and too young age, he could only carry buckets for everyone on the team and could do nothing else.He worked so hard on the job that he often didn't come home until after dark. The Radley house didn't frighten me any more, but it was still gloomy, so dark and bleak under the shadow of a few great oak trees that it seemed to keep people away.On clear days we still encountered Mr. Nathan Radley, who walked to and from town as usual.We know Boo is alive for the same old reason—no one has seen him carried out sideways yet.Sometimes, when I pass by that old place, I can't help but feel guilty when I think of the farce I have participated in.To Arthur Radley, our snooping was pure torture—what sane hermit would let a bunch of kids spy on him through the shutters, deliver him messages with fishing rods, and spend most of the night in his house What about the kale patch?

I remember it well—two coins with Indian heads on them, pieces of chewing gum, two soap dolls, a rusty medal, and a broken pocket watch with its chain on.Jem must have hidden these things somewhere.One afternoon I stopped to look at the tree: the trunk had bulged around the cement, and the cement itself was turning yellow. We almost saw him twice, which is pretty good record for anyone. However, every time I pass by, I still look for him with my eyes.Maybe one day, we will actually see him.I imagined what it would be like: I walked up, and he sat on the swing.I would say, "Hello, Mr. Arthur," as I would every afternoon. "Good afternoon, Jean Louise," he'd say to me, as if repeating himself every afternoon, "It's been a nice day, hasn't it?" "Yes, sir, it's pretty good," I said With that said, keep going your own way.

It's just a pipe dream.We'll never see him again.Perhaps at night he would sneak out to peek at Miss Stephanie when the moon was gone.If it were me, I'd rather spy on others.But that's his business.Anyway, he would never come to spy on us. One night, I went crazy and expressed my desire to get a good look at Boo Radley before I die. "You're not going to make trouble again, are you?" Atticus said. "If you do, I'm warning you right now: Get rid of it! I'm too old to run after you all the time and get you out of Ladd. Leighs away. Besides, it's very dangerous to do. You could get shot. You know, Mr. Nathan shoots whenever he sees a shadow, whether it leaves a light four yards or not Footprints. You were lucky you didn't get shot last time."

I never mentioned the thought again, but Atticus's words surprised me a lot.For the first time, he let us know that he knew a lot more than we thought.It was years ago, no, last summer--no, the summer before last, when... time played tricks on me, I must remember to ask Jem. After everything he's been through, Boo Radley is no longer a danger to us.Atticus said he didn't think anything was going to happen anymore, things would die down and after a while people would forget they ever cared about Tom Robinson. Perhaps Atticus was right, but the events of that summer, great and small, haunted us like smoke in a closed room.The grown-ups in Maycomb never mentioned the case to me or Jem, but it seemed to me that they talked about it with their own children.Their attitude must have been: Jem and I can't help it with a father like Atticus, and despite all our father's faults, their children still have to show us a friendly gesture.Those kids sure don't think of this for themselves, and if our schoolmates had no parental control and could make their own way, Jem and I would've had a few good fist fights with everyone and we'd have done it cleanly .But the present situation is that we both have to hold our heads high and act like ladies and gentlemen respectively.It was very much like when Mrs. Dubose was alive, only without her clamor.There is, however, one oddity which baffles me: that, in spite of all his failings as a father, Atticus was re-elected to Parliament with a sense of reassurance that year, and, as in previous years, No one objected.I came to the conclusion that people are just unpredictable, so I stayed away and didn't think about them at all until I had to.

One day at school, I ran into a situation that forced me to do so.We have a weekly commentary class on current affairs, requiring each child to cut out a piece of news from the newspaper, memorize the content by heart, and then tell the whole class.It is said that this practice can help children overcome various shortcomings: standing in front of their classmates and speaking can make a child stand upright and calm; making a short speech can cultivate children's conscious choice of words and sentences; The child's memory; being pulled out to complete a task alone will make the child more eager to return to the group.

The campaign was far-reaching, but it still didn't work out in Maycomb.First of all, rural children rarely read newspapers, so the task of commenting on current events falls on the town children, which further convinces the children on the school bus that all the limelight is given to the town. The child was taken.Rural kids who could get their hands on newspapers brought clippings, often from what they called The True Brave.In the eyes of our teacher, Miss Gates, this publication is a derisive tabloid.I can't figure out why Miss Gates frowns when some kid retells the news in The Brave, but it seems like it's the same kind of thing as "rolling" Sect," and singing "Donkey" as "stove" in "Little Donkey Joy"—all bad habits that the state pays teachers to get rid of.

Even so, there are still many children who have no idea what "current affairs" are.For example, Little Chuck, he knows the habits of cattle very well, no less than a centenarian.That day, he told everyone the story of "Uncle Nacher", and was interrupted by Miss Gates in the middle of the story: "Charles, this is not a current event, it is an advertisement." Fortunately, Cecil Jacobs still understands what "current events" are.When it was his turn, he went to the front of the room and said, "Old Hitler..." "It's Adolf Hitler, Cecil," Miss Gates corrected, "you can't start off with old so-and-so."

"Yes, sir," Cecil said, "old Adolf Hitler has been shooting..." "It's 'persecution,' Cecil..." "No, Miss Gates, it says 'Shoot' - well, anyway, old Adolf Hitler has been hunting down the Jews, putting them in jail, confiscating all their property, and not letting any of them leave the country , and purge all mentally retarded people..." "Purge the mentally retarded?" "Yes, sir. Miss Gates, I think it's because they don't have enough brains to shower themselves. Idiots generally don't maintain personal hygiene. Anyway, Hitler took action to put half-Jewish All the people who are involved are called together and registered in the register to prevent these people from causing trouble to him in the future. I think this is a bad thing. This is the current affairs I comment on."

"Very well, Cecil." Miss Gates commented.Cecil let out a sigh of relief and returned to his seat. Someone in the back of the classroom raised his hand: "How could he do that?" "Who did what?" Miss Gates was patient. "I mean, how could Hitler put so many people in prison, the government should stop him," said the person with the raised hand. "Hitler is the government." Miss Gates intends to seize this opportunity to give a flexible and vivid teaching.She went to the blackboard and wrote the word "democracy" in big letters. "Democracy," she said, "does anyone know the definition of that word?"

"That's us." Someone replied. I remembered a campaign slogan Atticus had told me long ago, and I raised my hand. "Jean Louise, what do you mean?" "'All are equal, no privileges.'" I quote that slogan. "Very well said, Jean Louise." Miss Gates smiled as she wrote "We are" before "Democracy." "Students, read together: 'We are a democracy.'" We read it in unison.Ms. Gates went on to say: "This is the difference between the United States and Germany. We are a democratic country, while Germany is a dictatorship, a dictatorship." She further explained: "In our country, we oppose the persecution of any People. Persecution comes from those who are prejudiced. Prejudice." She said each word: "There is no nation in the world that is superior to the Jews. Why didn't Hitler think so? To me Say it's a mystery."

An inquisitive classmate sitting in the middle of the classroom asked, "Why don't they like Jews? Miss Gates, what do you think?" "I can't say that, Henry. Jews have contributed to the local society no matter where they live, and most importantly, they are a deeply religious people. Hitler is trying to eliminate all religions. Perhaps this is The reason why he doesn't like Jews." Cecil volunteered his opinion, saying, "Well, I'm not sure, they should be doing it for money or something, but that's not the reason to persecute the Jews. They're white, aren't they? ?” Miss Gates said: "Cecile, when you get to high school, you'll learn about that. Jews have been persecuted and driven out of their homeland for as long as history. It's the most sensational One of the events. Now, kids, it's time for arithmetic." Arithmetic was never my thing, so during this time I wandered off and looked out of the window.Atticus was always peaceful, I only ever saw him scowling when Elmer Davies came on the radio to report the latest on Hitler.Atticus would always slam the radio off with a snort of "huh!"Once, when I asked him why he was so angry with Hitler, Atticus said, "Because he's crazy." It doesn't make sense - one madman to millions of Germans.The whole class was doing arithmetic problems, but I was thinking alone.In my opinion, they should have put Hitler in prison, not let Hitler imprison them.There must be something else wrong - I'm going to go back and ask my father. I asked my question and he said he couldn't answer it because he didn't know the answer. "It's okay to hate Hitler, isn't it?" "No," he said. "It's wrong to hate anyone." "Atticus," I said, "there's one thing I don't quite understand. Miss Gates said that what Hitler did was horrific, and she was flushed with emotion..." "I can imagine that." "But……" "Go ahead." "It's nothing." I walked away, because I felt that I couldn't explain my confusion to him, it was just a feeling, and I couldn't explain it clearly.Maybe Jem can give me an answer.Jem knows more about school than Atticus does. Jem was exhausted after carrying water all day.There were at least a dozen banana peels scattered on the floor beside his bed, with an empty milk bottle in between. "What do you want to eat and drink so much?" I asked. "The coach said if I gained twenty-five pounds the next year, I could compete," he said. "That's the fastest way to gain weight." "You don't want to spit it all out," I said. "Jem, I want to ask you something." "Speak." He put down the book in his hand and stretched his legs. "Miss Gates is a nice person, isn't she?" "Of course," said Jem, "I liked her when I was in her class." "She hated Hitler very much..." "Is there anything wrong with that?" "Oh, today she told us how bad Hitler was, and how badly he treated the Jews. Jem, it's wrong to persecute anybody, isn't it? I mean, you shouldn't have evil thoughts about anybody, Yes or no?" "Jesus, of course not, Scout. What's the matter with you?" "Well, we came out of the courthouse that night, and Miss Gates...she was walking ahead of us on the way down the steps, you must have not seen her...she was talking to Miss Stephanie. I heard her say, yes It's time to teach them a lesson, those niggers are getting more and more ignorant of the power of heaven and earth, and the next step they have to think they can intermarry with us white people. Jem, how can a person who hates Hitler so much turn his back on him The people in my hometown are so vicious..." Jem suddenly got very angry, jumped out of bed, grabbed me by the collar and shook me hard. "I don't want to hear about the court again, never, ever, do you hear me? Do you hear me? Don't say a word to me again, do you hear me? Get out!" I was so surprised that I forgot to cry, and slipped out of Jem's room without making a sound, closing the door softly, lest it should be too loud and cause him to lose his temper again.Suddenly, I was tired and wanted to go to Atticus.He was in the living room and I went up to him and tried to get into his arms. Atticus laughed. "You've grown so big I can't hold you whole." He took me in his arms and said softly, "Scout, don't be mad at Jem. He's so upset these days." Good. I heard what you two were talking about." Atticus said that Jem was trying to forget things, but was really just putting them aside for a while.After a while, he will rethink all this and think things through.When he can calmly think about the problem, he will return to his original appearance.