Chapter 27 Chapter Twenty Seven

As Atticus said, things were finally calming down.By mid-October there were only two unusual incidents involving two Maycomb citizens.No, it should be three pieces.Although it is not directly related to our Finch family, it is somewhat involved. The first concerns Mr. Bob Ewell, who won and then lost a job within a few days, which probably makes him a unique figure in the annals of the 1930s: as far as I am concerned To the best of our knowledge, he was the only person fired from WPA for laziness.I guess, the short-term overnight fame brought him only a more short-term hard work, and his job came and went as fast as his fame.Mr. Ewell found that, like Tom Robinson, he was not long forgotten.After that, he went back to the relief office every week as usual to collect the check, and when the check came, instead of being grateful, he cursed indistinctly about the gang who thought they were running the town. The bastards wouldn't let an honest man fend for himself.Ruth Jones, who works in the relief office, said Mr. Ewell also publicly swore that Atticus had ruined his job.Ruth was a little disturbed when she heard this, and went to Atticus' office to tell him about it.Atticus told Miss Ruth to take it easy, saying that if Bob Ewell wanted to come and discuss how he had "broke" his job, he knew how to get around the office.

The second thing happened to Judge Taylor.Mrs. Taylor went to church every Sunday night, but Judge Taylor never went, but stayed in his big house, enjoying the evenings alone, curled up in the study reading Bob Taylor's masterpiece-they didn't Not related by blood, but Judge Taylor would be very proud if he could climb up to a relative.One Sunday night, Judge Taylor was immersed in vivid metaphors and beautiful words, when he heard an annoying scratching sound, interrupting his concentration. "Hush," he yelled at Ann Taylor.Ann Taylor was the family's big, featureless dog.Then he realized that he was speaking into an empty room, and the scratching sound was coming from the back of the house.Judge Taylor trudged out onto the back porch to let the dog out, only to find the screen door swinging open.He caught a glimpse of a figure in a corner of the house, and that was all the impression he had of the intruder.Mrs. Taylor came home from church to find her husband sitting in his chair, engrossed in reading Bob Taylor, with a shotgun across his lap.

The third thing is about Helen Robinson, Tom's widow.If Mr. Ewell is as forgotten as Tom Robinson, Tom is as forgotten as Boo Radley.However, Mr. Link Deas, Tom's original employer, did not forget him and specially arranged a job for his wife Helen.He didn't really need Helen to help. He said that it made him feel very uncomfortable that things had come to such an end.I never even figured out who looked after Helen's children when she went to work.Calpurnia said Helen had a hard time and had to walk an extra mile a day to avoid Ewell's house.In Helen's words, it was the first time she passed there, and just as she was about to set foot on the public road, she was "sieged" by the Ewell family.Day after day, Mr. Link Deas finally found out that Helen took a long way to go to work every day, so he forced her to tell the reason. "Don't worry about it, Mr. Link, please." Helen begged. "I can't spare him!" said Mr. Link.He asked Helen to meet him in the shop before returning home in the afternoon.Helen obeyed his words, and when it was evening, Mr. Link closed the shop, put his hat on his head firmly, and walked home with Helen.They took the short cut, passing Ewell's house.When he turned back, he stopped in front of the crooked courtyard door.

"Ewell?" he yelled, "I say Ewell!" Those window openings were usually crowded with children, but now they were empty. "I know you're all in the house, all on the floor. Listen, Bob Ewell: If I hear my Helen mutter again that she's afraid to walk this way, I won't When it gets dark, I'll send you to prison!" Mr. Link spat on the ground, turned and went home. The next morning, when Helen went to work, she took the public road, and no one surrounded her anymore, but after she walked a few steps away from Ewell's house, she turned her head and saw Ewell Mr. Hall was following her.She turned her head and went on her way, and the Mr. Ewell followed her all the way to the door of Mr. Link Deas's house, always keeping a certain distance from her.Helen said that along the way, she heard whispered curses behind her, and they were all obscene words.She was terrified, and quickly called Mr. Link who was guarding the store.The store was not far from home, and as soon as Mr. Link stepped out of the store, he saw Mr. Ewell leaning against the fence in his yard.Mr. Ewell said, "Link Deese, don't look at me like I'm a piece of mud. I didn't mess with you..."

"Ewell, the first thing you have to do is get that stinky sack of yours off my fence. You've been on it and I can't afford to repaint it. Second thing, Just stay away from my cook, or I will sue you for harassment..." "Link Dice, I didn't touch her, I ain't gonna find a nigga!" "You don't have to touch her, you can just frighten her. If the crime of harassment isn't enough to lock you up for a while, I'll sue you under the Women's Act. Get the hell out of here! If you think I'm not moving Seriously, try provoking her again!"

Mr. Ewell obviously thought he meant it, because Helen never spoke of such trouble again. "Atticus, this kind of thing really bothers me, I'm so sick of it"—that was how Aunt Alexandra felt. "He seems to hold a grudge against everyone involved in that case. I know how that kind of person would vent his resentment, but I don't understand why he would do this—didn't he succeed in court?" "I can understand it," said Atticus, "perhaps because he knew that not many people in Maycomb believed the lies he and Mayella were telling. He thought he was going to be a hero, but he It took a lot of hard work and all it took was...just: well, we convict the black person, you go back to your dump. He's got everyone in trouble now and should be fine When the weather turns cold, I guess his resentment will subside."

"But why did he burglarize John Taylor's house? He obviously didn't know John was home at the time, and he wouldn't have broken in if he had known. John usually only turns on the lights on the front porch and the lights in the study on Sunday nights... ..." "You don't know if Bob Ewell cut that screen door, and you don't know who did it," Atticus said, "but I can guess. I debunked it in court. He lied, and John made him look like a fool. I didn't dare to look at John from the beginning to the end when Ewell was on the witness stand, for fear I couldn't help laughing. The way John looked at him was like Like he's a chicken with three legs or a square egg. Don't tell me judges never try to influence juries." Atticus chuckled.

By the end of October, our lives were back to the same old routine: going to school, playing, reading.Jem seems to have all the things he wants to forget out of his mind, and the generosity of our classmates makes us forget that we have a deviant father.Cecil asked me once, "Is your father a radical?" I went home and asked Atticus, and I was a little annoyed at how happy he was, but he said he wasn't laughing at me, and said: "You tell Cecil I'm about as aggressive as 'Cotton Tom' Heflin." Aunt Alexandra's moment of success, it seems that Miss Maudie must have shocked the whole missionary meeting, because Auntie began to act as "chicken head" among them again, and even the tea she prepared became more and more delicious up.Regarding those poor Mona people, I learned more about their social life from Mrs. Merriweather: they have almost no family concept, and the whole tribe is one big family.All children have as many fathers as there are men in the tribe, and as many mothers as there are women in the tribe. Pastor J. Grimes Everett is doing all he can to change this, and our prayers are urgently needed.

Maycomb was back to its old self, almost exactly where it was last year and the year before, except for two minor changes.The first change was the removal of old signs from store windows and cars that read, "NRA—People Do Their Jobs."I asked Atticus why, and he said it was because the National Recovery Act was killed.I asked who killed it, and he said nine old men. The second change in Maycomb, which is not national, started last year.Until then, Halloween had never been organized in Maycomb.Each child played on his own set, and the other children were called in when they needed to move things, such as a buggy on the roof of the barn.However, since the events of Miss Tutti and Miss Frutti's quiet life were disturbed, the parents have agreed that the children have gone too far.

Tutti Barber and Fruti Barber were sisters, both old ladies, who lived together in the only house in Maycomb with a cellar.Rumor had it that the sisters were Republicans who had moved from Clanton, Alabama in 1911.Their way of life seemed queer to us, and no one could understand why they wanted a cellar, but they had the idea anyway, so they dug one, and the result was that they never lived happily ever after, leaving generations of old The child rushes out. The names of Miss Tutti and Miss Fruity were Sarah and Francis respectively.In addition to all the Yankee habits, they were both deaf.Miss Tutti refuses to admit this fact, preferring to live in a world of silence, while Miss Frutti doesn't want to miss anything, so she installs a huge hearing aid in the shape of a trumpet.Jem asserted that it was a loudspeaker taken from a Victor phonograph.

A few mischievous children found out about this, took advantage of Halloween, and after the two old ladies were asleep, they sneaked into the living room of their house (except for the Radley house, no one locked the door at night), sneaked into the living room. He moved out all the furniture inside and hid them in the cellar.I vehemently deny my participation in this frivolous business. "I hear their voices!" The next morning, the neighbors of the two old ladies were awakened by this shout. "I heard them pull the truck up to the gate! The thumping was like a horse's hooves. They must be all in New Orleans by now!" A gang of itinerant furriers passed through town two days before, and Miss Tootie insisted that they had stolen the furniture. "Those Syrians," she said, "are so dark." Mr. Heck Tate was summoned.After inspecting the scene, he said it felt like a local did it.Miss Fruity said she knew the Maycomb accent so well she could hear it everywhere, but last night there was no one in the living room with a Maycomb accent--the gang was walking around talking It's a retroflex sound.Miss Tutti insisted that hounds should be used to find the furniture, and Mr. Tate had to run ten miles of dirt road to gather the country hounds and set them on a sniffing trail. Mr. Tate let the hounds start on the front steps, but they all ran to the back of the house and barked at the cellar door.After doing this three times, Mr. Tate guessed the truth of the matter.Before noon that day there was not a barefoot child to be seen on the streets of Maycomb, and none of them would take off their shoes until the hounds were sent home. As soon as this happened, the ladies of Maycomb said this year was going to be different.As a result, the Maycomb High School auditorium will be open to the public, where adults can watch the show and children can play games like "Mouth Apple," "Toffee Pull," and "Tack the Donkey's Tail."There is also a quarterly prize for the best homemade Halloween costume. Jem and I complained a lot.It wasn't because of some mischief we both did, but because of the rule.Jem figured he was too old for Halloween tricks anyway, and he said he didn't want to be seen around the high school auditorium taking part in silly stuff when that night came.Oh well, I thought, Atticus will take me there. However, I soon heard that I had to perform on stage that night.Mrs. Merriweather asked me to play the ham in a fancy stage play called "Maycomb County: A Bumpy Road to the Stars."She thought it would be very pleasing to have a group of kids dressed up as Maycomb County's staple produce: Cecil as a cow, Agnes Boone as a cute butterbean, and a kid Play Peanuts, and go on and on until Mrs. Merriweather's imagination ran out and there were no more children to play roles. After two rehearsals, I have figured out that our task is to walk onto the stage from the left side at the prompt of Mrs. Merriweather, the writer and narrator.As soon as she calls "pork," it's my turn to make an appearance.Then, the friends will sing in unison: Maycomb County, Maycomb County, you will always be in our hearts.The closing act would be a grand one—Mrs. Merriweather was going to take the stage with the state flag aloft. My costume is not a problem.There was a tailor in the town, Mrs. Crenshaw, who, like Mrs. Merriweather, was full of whimsical ideas.Mrs. Crenshaw bent the barbed wire into the shape of a prosciutto, covered it with a brown cloth, and painted on it to make the prosciutto look more realistic.All I have to do is squat down and have this outfit pulled over my head, almost up to my knees.Mrs. Crenshaw was very considerate, and took care to leave me two observation holes.She's good at it, said Jem, and I look like a ham with two legs.There are discomforts with the device, though: It's too hot inside, too tight to scratch my nose if it itches, and once it's on, I can't get out without help. When it came to Halloween, I thought the whole family would be there to see me perform, and I was so disappointed.Atticus told me, in the most euphemistic way possible, that he was too tired to make it to the show in the evening.He had been in Montgomery for a week and did not return home that evening.He felt that Jem would go with me if I asked him. Aunt Alexandra said she had to go to bed early, she was exhausted from working all afternoon helping set the stage--she stopped suddenly in the middle of the sentence.Her mouth closed and opened again, as if to say something, but no word came out. "What's the matter, Auntie?" I asked. "Oh, it's nothing, it's nothing," she said. "I just shivered. Someone must have stepped on my grave." Play it out in front of the whole family.So Jem put me in my costume, and stood in the doorway, and yelled "pig-meat," in exactly the same voice as Mrs. Merriweather.As soon as he finished speaking, I strode in, and Atticus and Aunt Alexandra beamed with joy. I did it again for Calpurnia in the kitchen and she said I was doing a great job.I was thinking of showing Miss Maudie across the street, but Jem said she was going to see the show anyway, so I had to give it up. That way, it doesn't matter if they go or not.Jem offered to take me, and we both took the longest walk in memory.