chapter 16 gem heard me he thrust his head around the connecting door as he came to my bed Atticus's light flashed on we stayed where we were until it went off and we heard him turn over then we waited until he was still again Jim took me to his room and put me in bed beside him try to go to sleep he said it'll all be over after tomorrow maybe we had come in quietly so as to not wake aunty Atticus killed the engine in the driveway and coasted to the car house we went in the back door into our rooms without a word I was very tired and was drifting into sleep when the memory of Atticus calmly folding his newspaper and pushing back his hat became Atticus standing in the middle of an empty waiting street pushing up his glasses the full meaning of the night's events hit me and I began crying Jim was awfully nice about it for once he didn't remind me that people nearly nine years old and do things like that everybody's appetite was delicate this morning except gems he ate his way through three eggs Atticus watched in Frank admiration aunt Alexandra sipped coffee and radiated waves of disapproval children who slipped out at night were a disgrace to the family Atticus said he was right glad his disgraces had come along but auntie said nonsense mr. Underwood was there all the time you know it's a funny thing about braxton said Atticus he despises black folks won't have one near him local opinion held mr. Underwood to be an intense profane little man whose father in a fait fit of humor christened Braxton Bragg a name mr. Underwood had done his best to live down Atticus said naming people after Confederate generals made slow steady drinkers Calpurnia was serving aunt Alexandra more coffee and she shook her head at what I thought was a pleading winning look you're still too little she said I'll tell you when you ain't I said it might help my stomach all she said and I got a cup from the sideboard she poured one tablespoon of coffee into it and filled the cup to the brim with milk I thanked her by sticking out my tongue at it I looked up to catch auntie's warning frown but she was frowning at Atticus she waited until Calpurnia was in the kitchen then she said don't talk like that in front of them talk like what in front of whom he asked like that in front of Calpurnia you said Braxton Underwood despises black folks right in front of her well I'm sure Cal knows it everybody in Maycomb knows it I was beginning to notice a subtle change in my father these days that came out when he talked with and Alexandre it was a quiet digging in never outright irritation there was a faint starchiness in his voice when he said anything fit to save the tables fit to say in front of Calpurnia she knows what she means to this family I don't think it's a good habit Atticus it encourages him you know how they talk among themselves everything that happens in this town's out to the quarters before sundown my father put down his knife I don't know of any law that says they can't talk maybe if we didn't give them so much to talk about they'd be quiet why don't you drink your coffee Scout I was playing in it with the spoon I thought mr. Cunningham was a friend of ours you told me a long time ago he was he still is but last night he wanted to hurt you Atticus placed his fork besides his knife and pushed his plate aside mr. Cunningham is basically a good man he said he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us Jem spoke don't call that a blind spot Heda killed you last night when he first went there he might have hurt me a little Atticus conceded but son you'll understand folks a lot better when you're older a mobs always made up of people no matter what mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night but he was still a man every mob and every little southern town is always made up of people you know doesn't say much for them does it I'll say not said gem so it took an eight-year-old child to bring them to their senses dinted said Atticus that proves something that a gang of wild animals can be stopped simply because they're still human hmm maybe we need a police force of children you children last and I made Walter Cunningham stand in my shoes for a minute that was enough well I hoped Jim would understand folks a little better when he was older I would first day of alter comes back to school be his last i affirmed you will not touch him Atticus said flatly I don't want either of you bearing a grudge about this thing no matter what happens you see don't you sit down Alexandra what comes of things like this don't say I haven't told you Atticus said he'd never say that pushed out his chair and got up there's a day ahead so excuse me Jim I don't want you and Scout downtown today please as Atticus departed dill came bounding down the hall into the dining room it's all over town this morning he announced about how we held off a hundred folks with our bare hands and Alexandra stared him to silence it was not a hundred folks she said and nobody held anybody off it was just a nest of those Cunningham's drunk-and-disorderly ah auntie that's just Dill's way said gem he signaled us to follow him you'll stay in the yard today she said as we made our way to the front porch it was like Saturday people from the south end of the county past our house in a leisurely but steady stream mister Dollfuss raymond lurched by on his thoroughbred don't see how he stays in the saddle murmured Jim how come you stand to get drunk for 8:00 in the morning a wagon load of ladies rattle past us they were cotton sub bonnets and dresses with long sleeves a bearded man and a wool hat drove them yonder some Mennonites gem said to dill they don't have buttons they live deep in the woods did most of their trading across the river and rarely came to make him dill was interested they've all got blue why's gem explained and the men can't shave after they marry their wives like for him to tickle em with their beers mr. X Billups rode by on a mule and waved to us he's a funny man said gem X is his name not his initial he was in court one time and they asked him his name he said X Billups clerk asked him to spell it and he said X asked and ax again and he said X they kept at it till he wrote X on a sheet of paper and held it up for everybody to see they asked him where we got his name and he said that's the way his folks signed him up when he was born as the county went Bias Jim gave dill the histories and general attitudes of the more prominent figures mr. Henshaw Jones voted the straight prohibition ticket Miss Emily Davis dipped snuff in private mr. Byron Waller could play the violin mr. Jake Slade was cutting his third set of teeth a wagon load of unusually Stern face citizens appeared when they pointed to Miss Maudie Atkinson's yarda blazed with summer flowers Miss Maudie herself came out on the porch there was an odd thing about Miss Maudie on her porch she was too far away for us to see her features clearly but but we could always catch her mood by the way she stood she was now standing arms akimbo her shoulders drooping a little her head cocked to one side her glasses winking in the sunlight we knew she wore a grin of the uttermost wickedness the driver of the wagon slowed down his mules and a shrill voiced women called out he that cometh in Vanity departeth in darkness Miss Maudie answered a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance I guess that the foot washers thought that the devil was quoting scripture for his own purposes as the driver speeded his mules why they objected to miss Mattie's yard was a mystery heightened in my mind because someone who spent all the daylight hours outdoors miss Mattie's command of Scripture was formidable you go into court this morning ask Jim we had strolled over I am NOT she said I have no business with the court this morning aren't you going downtown to watch ask dill I'm not tis morbid watching a poor devil on trial trial for his life look at all those folks it's like a Roman carnival they have to try them in public Miss Maudie I said wouldn't be right if they didn't I'm quite aware of that she said just because it's public I don't have to go do I miss Stephanie Crawford came by she wore had in gloves mm-hmm she said look at all those folks you think William Jennings Bryan was speaking and where you going Stephanie inquired Miss Maudie to the jitney jungle Miss Maudie said she'd never seen miss Stephanie go to the jitney jungle in a hat in her life well said Miss Stephanie I thought I might just go look in at the courthouse to see what Atticus is up to be careful he doesn't hand you a subpoena we asked Miss Maudie to elucidate she said Miss Stephanie seemed to know so much about the case she might as well be called on to testify we held off until noon when Atticus came home to dinner and said they'd spent the morning picking the jury after dinner we stopped by for Dylan went to town it was a gala occasion there was no room at the public hitching rail for another animal mules and wagons were parked under every available tree the courthouse square was covered with picnic parties sitting on newspapers washing down biscuit in syrup with warm milk from fruit jars some people were nine on cold chicken and cold fried pork chops the more affluent chased their food with drugstore coca-cola and bulb-shaped soda glasses greasy faced children popped the whip through the crowd and babies lunched on their mothers breasts in a far corner of the square the black folks sat quietly in the Sun dining on sardines crackers and the more vivid flavors of knee-high Cola mr. Dollfuss raymond sat with him jim said dill he's drinking out of a sack mister Dollfuss raymond seemed to be doing so - yellow drugstore straws ran from his mouth to the depths of a brown paper bag ain't ever seen anybody do that murmured dill how does he keep what's what's in it Jim giggled he's got a coca-cola bottle full of whiskey in there that Zoe's not too upset the ladies you'll see him sip it all afternoon he'll step out for a while and fill it back up why is he sitting with the black folks always does he likes him better and he likes us I reckon it lives by himself way down near the county line he's got a black woman in all sorts of mixed chillin show you some of them if we see him he doesn't look like trash said dill he's not he owns all one side of the riverbank down there and he's from a real old family to boot then why does he do like that that's just his way said gem they say he never got over his wedding he was supposed to marry one of the the Spencer ladies I think they were going to have a huge weddin but they didn't after the rehearsal the bride went upstairs and blew her head off shotgun she pulled the trigger with her toes did they ever know why no said Jim nobody ever knew quite why but mr. Dolphus they said it was because she found out about his black woman he reckoned he could keep her and get married too he's been sort of drunk ever since you know though he's real good or been real good to those chillin Jim I ask what's a mixed child half white half black you've seen him scout you know that red kinky headed one that delivers for the drugstore he's half white they're real sad sad how come they don't belong anywhere black folks won't have them because they're half white white folks won't have them because they're half black so they're just in betweens they don't belong anywhere but mr. Dolphus now they say he shipped two of them up north they don't mind him up north yonder is one of them a small boy clutching a black woman's hand walked toward us he looked all black to me he was rich chocolate with flaring nostrils and beautiful teeth sometimes he would skip happily and the black woman tugged his hand and make him stop Jim waited until they passed us that's one of the little ones he said how can you tell last dil he looked black to me you can't sometimes not unless you know who they are but he's half Raymond all right but how can you tell I asked I told you Scout you just have to know who they are well how do you know we ain't black Uncle Jack Finch says we really don't know he says as far as he can trace back the finches we ain't but for all he knows we might have come straight out of Ethiopia during the Old Testament well if we came out during the Old Testament it's too long ago too matter that's what I thought said Jim but around here once you have a drop of black blood that makes you all black Hey look some invisible signal had made the lunch errs on the square rise and scatter bits of newspaper cellophane and wrapping paper children came to mothers babies were cradled on hips as men and sweat-stained hats collected their families and herded them through the courthouse doors in the far corner of the square the black folks and mr. Dollfuss Raymond stood up and dusted their breeches there were a few women and children among them which seemed to dispel the holiday mood they waited patiently at the doors behind the other white families let's go in said dill now we better wait till they get in Atticus might not like it if he sees us said Jim the Macon County Courthouse was faintly reminiscent of Arlington at one respect the concrete pillar supporting its south roof were too heavy for their light burden the pillars were all that remains standing when the original courthouse burned in 1856 another courthouse was built around them it is better to say built in spite of them but for the South porch the Maycomb County Courthouse was early Victorian presenting an unoffensive visto and scene from the north from the other side however Greek Revival columns clashed with a big 19th century clock tower housing a rusty unreliable instrument a view indicating a people determined to preserve every physical scrap of the past to reach the court room on the second floor one passed sundry sunless county cubbyholes the tax assessor that tax collector the County Clerk the County solicitor the circuit clerk the judge of probate lived in cool dim hutches that smelled of decay nor record books mingled with old damp Samantha's stale urine it was necessary to turn on the lights in the daytime there was always a film of dust on the rough floorboards the inhabitants of these offices were creatures of their environment little gray faced men they seemed untouched by wind or Sun we knew there was a crowd but we had not bargained for the multitudes in the first floor hallway I got separated from Jem and dill but made my way toward the wall by the stairwell knowing Jem would come for me eventually I found myself in the middle of the idlers club and made myself as unobtrusive as possible this was a group of white-shirted khaki trousers suspended old men who had spent their lives doing nothing and passed their twilight days doing same on pine benches under the live oaks on the square attentive critics of courthouse business Atticus said they knew as much law as the chief justice from long years of observation normally they were the courts only spectators and today they seemed resentful of the interruption of their comfortable routine when they spoke their voices sounded casually important the conversation was about my father thinks he knows what he's doing one said oh now I wouldn't say that I said another Atticus Finch is a deep reader a mighty deep reader he reads all right that's all he does the club snickered let me tell you something now Billy 1/3 said you know the court appointed him to defend this black man yeah but Atticus aims to defend him that's what I don't like about it this was news news that put a different light on things Atticus had to whether he wanted to or not I thought it odd that he hadn't said anything to us about it we could have used it many times in defending him and ourselves he had to that's why he was doing it equalled fewer fights and less fussing but did that explain the town's attitude the court appointed Atticus to defend him Atticus aimed to defend him that's what they didn't like about it it was confusing the black folks having waited for the white people to go upstairs began to come in whoa now just a minute said a club member holding up his walking stick just don't start up them stairs yet awhile the club began its stiff jointed climb and ran into dill and Jam on their way down looking at looking for me they squeezed past and gem called scout come on there ain't a seat left we'll have to stand up look at there now he said irritably as the black folks surged upstairs the old man ahead of them would take most of the standing room we were out of luck and it was my fault Jim informed me we stood miserably by the wall can't y'all get in Reverend Sikes was looking down at us black hat in hand hey Reverend said Jim na Scout here messed us up well let's see what we can do Reverend Sykes edged his way upstairs in a few moments he was back there's not a seat downstairs do y'all reckon he'll it'll be alright if you came up to the balcony with me oh gosh yes said Jim happily we sped ahead of Reverend Sykes to the courtroom floor there we went up a covered staircase and waited at the door Reverend Sykes came puffing behind us and steered us gently through the black people in the balcony for black folks rose and gave us their front-row seats the balcony of black folks ran along three walls of the courtroom like a second-story veranda and from it we could see everything the jury sat to the left under long windows sunburned lanky they seemed to all be farmers but this was natural town folk rarely sat on juries they were either struck or excused one or two of the jury looked vaguely like dressed up Cunningham's at this stage they sat straight and alert the circuit solicitor and another man Atticus and Tom Robinson sat at tables with their backs to us there was a brown book and some yellow tablets on the solicitors table Atticus's was bare just inside the railing that divided the spectators from the court the witnesses sat on Kowhai and bottom chairs their backs were to us Judge Taylor was on the looking like a sleepy old shark his pilot fish riding rapidly below in front of him judge Taylor looked like most judges I had ever seen amiable white-haired slightly ruddy-faced he was a man who ran his court with an alarming informality he sometimes propped his feet up he often cleaned his fingernails with his pocketknife in long equity hearings especially after dinner he gave the impression of dozing an impression dispelled forever when a lawyer once deliberately pushed a pile of books to the floor in a desperate effort to wake him up without opening his eyes Judge Taylor murmured mr. Whitley do that again and it'll cost you $100 he was a man learned in the law and although he seemed to take his job casually in reality he kept a firm grip on any proceedings that came before him only once was Judge Taylor ever seen at a dead standstill in open court and the Cunningham stopped him old sarum there stamping grounds was populated by two families separate and apart in the beginning but unfortunately bearing the same name the Cunningham's married the qanun hams and till the spelling of the names was academic academic until a Cunningham disputed a Cunningham over land titles and took to the law during a controversy of this character James Cunningham testified that his mother spelled at Cunningham on deeds and things but she was really a conyngham she was an uncertain speller a seldom reader and was given to looking far away sometimes when she sat on the front gallery in the evening after 9 hours of listening to the eccentricity zuv old serums inhabitants judge Taylor threw the case out of court when asked upon what grounds Judge Taylor said champer TISS connivance and declared he hoped to God the litigants were satisfied by each having had their public say they were that was all they had wanted in the first place judge Taylor had one interesting habit he permitted smoking in his courtroom but did not himself indulge sometimes if one we're lucky one had the privilege of watching him put a long dry cigar into his mouth and munch it up slowly bit by bit the dead cigar would disappear to reappear some hours later as a flat slick mess its essence extracted in mingling with Judge Taylor's digestive juices I once asked Atticus how mrs. Taylor stood to kiss him but Atticus said they didn't kiss much the witness stand was to the right of Judge Taylor and when we got to our seats mr. heck Tate was already on it