TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Chapter 7
Chapter 7
School starts again. Dill has gone back home. Scout and Jem miss him. But they have school. They also have the tree. They keep finding gifts in it.
One day, Jem tells Scout something. “Do you remember when I lost my pants at the Radley house? I ripped my pants on the fence. But when I found my pants, they were fixed. They were mended. They were folded. It’s like someone knew I’d be back.” “Do you think it was Boo?” Scout asks. “It had to be,” Jem says. “It couldn’t be anyone else.”
As the days pass, they find more gifts in the tree. They find soap figures. The figures look like Scout and Jem. They find gum, a spelling medal, and a watch. They are happy. They think Boo is a friend. He’s a secret friend.
They show Atticus their gifts. “That’s a spelling medal. It’s from a long time ago. Where did you find it?” Scout was going to tell her father. Jem kicked her. They showed him a watch. “Did you swap something for it,” his dad asks. “No Sir! I found it,” Jem says.
“It’s broken,” their dad says. Here, you can carry around your grandfather’s watch. It works.” “No thank you. I’ll carry this one,” Jem says.
”Let’s write a letter. Let’s write our secret friend a thank you letter,” Scout says. They go to put the letter in the hole. The hole is gone. Someone filled it.
The children see Mr. Radley in the front yard of the house. He says the tree is sick. He had to fill the hole. But Atticus says the tree is not sick. The kids are sad. They can't get gifts anymore.
