Miss Maudie yelled over to be careful with her flowers. She was not happy about the snow and was worried about the snow and freeze ruining her azaleas . We asked her if we could borrow some of her snow for our snowman. Jem filled five laundry baskets with earth and two with snow.
“Don’t you think this is kind of a mess?” I asked.
“Looks messy now, but it won’t later,” he said.
Jem scooped up an armful of dirt and patted it into a round shape for the torso.
“Jem, I ain’t ever heard of a n****r snowman,” I said.
“He won’t be black long,” he grunted.
We couldn't wait for Atticus to come home and see our creation. Atticus complimented Jem and thought whatever he ended up being in life, he’d never run out of ideas. Atticus told us we needed to disguise our snowman by putting an apron and broom since it looked too much like Mr. Avery.
It was one of the coldest nights in Maycomb’s history. I went to bed and minutes later, it seemed, I was awakened . “Is it morning already?”
“Baby, get up.”
Atticus was holding out my bathrobe and coat. “Put your robe on first,” he said.
We went to the front door and Miss Maudie’s house was on fire.
