Journal #3
Chapters 8 & 9
Perspective: Atticus

Autumn turned to winter this year, and for the first time since 1885, it snowed. Mr. Avery said that on the Rosetta stone it says that when children act up and bring violence, the seasons will change. Mr. Avery Always has reasons for things that come from the Rosetta stone. Mrs. Radley died this winter, but didn’t make much of an impact on the town. Everybody hardly ever saw her. My kids had thought that Boo had finally got her, but I informed them that it was due to natural causes. Scout and Jem had never seen snow before, so when Scout looked outside, she thought that the world was ending. During breakfast I got a call from Eula May, Maycomb’s leading telephone operator informing us that there will be no school due to the fact that it hadn’t snowed since 1885. Jem and Scout wanted to make a snow man even though I told them there was hardly enough snow to successfully make a single snowball. When I got home that day, a snowman was there to welcome me. Turns out, Jem knew how to make a snow man by using mud and snow. I told him how wonderful of a job he did. The snowman resembled Mr. Avery, so I told Jem to fix it or remove some parts of the snowman.

That night, although the snow had stopped, it was very cold. I offered Calpurnia to stay the night with us, but she said she would rather go to her own house. So, I drove her home so that she didn’t have to walk in the malignant weather. Before bed, I put more coal on the fire in Jem and Scouts room. Later that night, I was woken up by commotion due to a fire at Miss Maudie’s. I quickly went to the kid’s room and teetered through the door way to wake up Jem and Scout. Scout took awhile to wake up and was in a daze and quibbling. We evaded our house and I instructed Jem and Scout to stand off by the Radley’s place and out of the way. All of the men of Maycomb were helping, and I carried out Mrs. Maudies favorite rocking chair. Mr. Avery was up in the top window pushing out her mattress. We then started yelling to him to get out and that the stairs were collapsing. He began climbing out the window and got stuck but made it out alive.

I am in the middle of a case right now defending a Negro, and apparently, it is bringing trouble to Scout during school. I told her that everything would be fine and to keep her head high and keep her fists low. I didn’t want her to fight anymore. I told her that I had to take this case because if not, I wouldn’t be able to represent this county in the legislature.