One day I noticed that Miss Maudie had something strange about her teeth. When I admired them she said, “Look here.” With a click of her tongue she thrust out her dentures . Cool! I think that was her way of letting me know that she really considered me a friend!
Miss Maudie made the best cakes in the neighborhood. She would yell, “Jem Finch, Scout Finch, Charles Baker Harris, come here!” That meant that she had baked some small cakes for us, and we went running!
One evening I asked, “Miss Maudie, do you think Boo Radley’s still alive?”
“His name’s Arthur and he’s alive,” she said.
“How do you know?”
“What a morbid question. I know he’s alive, Jean Louise, because I haven’t seen anyone carry out a body!”
“Jem said that maybe he died and they stuffed him up in the chimney”, I added.
Miss Maudie said, “Tsk. Tsk. Jem gets more like Jack Finch every day. They’re both such wise-guys!”
Jack Finch was my uncle, Atticus’s brother, and Miss Maudie had known him since they were children. Miss Maudie had grown up near Finch’s Landing and used to play with Jack. Uncle Jack visited our house every Christmas, and every Christmas he yelled across the street for Miss Maudie to come marry him. He was such a jokester! Miss Maudie would call back, “Call a little louder, Jack Finch, and they’ll hear you at the post office!”
