Chapter 8
That winter an unusual thing happened in Maycomb County -- it snowed. Mr. Avery, the pot-bellied neighbor they'd watched peeing off his porch last summer, insisted that the weather changed because of bad children like Scout and Jem. They ignored him and went on playing in the thin layer of snow. Then Jem was struck with inspiration. He constructed a skeleton of sticks and mud before he plastered the snow over it, and the pot-bellied snowman looked suspiciously like Mr. Avery.
Atticus, amused and impressed, insisted that they try to disguise the resemblance by dressing it up with Miss Maudie's straw hat and garden shears.
That night was colder than anyone in Maycomb County remembered, and Atticus woke Scout after what seemed like only a few minutes of sleep because Miss Maudie's house was burning. Atticus sent Scout and Jem down the street by the Radley place to watch from a safe distance, and they stood there shivering as their neighbor's house melted to ashes. Scout and Jem shivered together on the sidewalk in front of the Radley place, and when they went back home, Atticus noticed a brown blanket around Scout's shoulders. She had no idea where it came from and was shocked when Jem and Atticus discovered that it was Boo who had covered her up. When Atticus suggested that they return the blanket, Jem refused and then poured out all their secrets about his pants, about the knothole, and how Nathan cemented up the knothole to keep them from having contact with Boo. Atticus agreed that they should just keep all of this to themselves and maybe one day Scout could thank the man who covered her with the blanket.
Topic Tracking: Benevolence 4
Topic Tracking: Innocence 7
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