"To Kill a Mockingbird" - Chapter 3

He waited in amiable silence, and I sought to reinforce my position: "You never went to school and you do all right, so I'll just stay home too."

"I don't know of any landowner around here who begrudges those children any game their father can hit."

He gave a short contemptuous snot.

"Ain't got no mother," was the answer, "and their paw's right contentious."

"A hain't lives there," he said cordially, pointing to the Radley house.

"I'm afraid our activities would be received with considerable disapprobation by the more learned authorities."

Atticus kept us in fits that evening, gravely reading columns of print about a man who sat on a flagpole for no discernible reason, which was reason enough for Jem to spend the following Saturday aloft in the treehouse.

Jem's free dispensation of my pledge irked me, but precious noontime minutes were ticking away.

She was furious, and when she was furious Calpurnia's grammar became erratic.

She had always been to hard on me, she had at last seen the error of her fractious ways, she was sorry and too stubborn to say so.

If the remainder of the school year were as fraught with drama as the first day, perhaps it would be mildly entertaining, but the prospect of spending nine months refraining form reading and writing made me think of running away.

"Now don't you fret, ma'am," he said.

The cooties' host showed not the faintest interest in the furor he had wrought.

Jem and Walter returned to school ahead of me: staying behind to advise Atticus of Calpurnia's iniquities was worth a solitary sprint past the Radley Place.

In certain circumstances the common folk judiciously allowed them certain privileges by the simple method of becoming blind to some of the Ewells' activities.

His fists were half cocked, as if expecting an onslaught from both of us.

He waited in amiable silence, and I sought to reinforce my position: "You never went to school and you do all right, so I'll just stay home too."

The truant lady gets 'em here 'cause she threatens 'em with the sheriff, but she's give up tryin' to hold 'em.

The cooties' host showed not the faintest interest in the furor he had wrought.