According to Miss Stephanie Crawford Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr. Ewell came up to him, cursed him, spit on him, and threatened to kill him. Miss Stephanie said Atticus didn’t care, just took out his handkerchief and wiped his face and stood there and let Mr. Ewell call him names. So Mr. Ewell said, “Too proud to fight, you n****r-lovin’ bastard?” And Atticus replied, “No, too old,” put his hands in his pockets and walked away.
A few days later, Atticus noticed that Jem and I were really worried because Bob Ewell had threatened to kill Atticus. He told Jem, “Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes a minute. I destroyed his last piece of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take. He had to take it out on somebody and I’d rather it be me than that houseful of children out there. You understand?”
After that, we were not afraid. Atticus also told us that nothing would happen to Tom Robinson until the higher court reviewed his case, and that Tom had a good chance of going free, or at least of having a new trial. He was at Enfield Prison Farm, seventy miles away in Chester County. I asked Atticus if Tom’s wife and children were allowed to visit him, but Atticus said no. “If he loses his appeal ,” I asked one evening, “what’ll happen to him?”
“He’ll go to the electric chair,” said Atticus, “unless the Governor changes his sentence. Not time to worry yet, Scout. We’ve got a good chance.”
“Tom’s jury sure made up its mind in a hurry,” Jem muttered.
Atticus’s fingers went to his pocket. “No it didn’t,” he said, more to himself than to us. “That was the one thing that made me think, well, this may be the shadow of a beginning. That jury took a few hours. An inevitable verdict, maybe, but usually it takes ‘em just a few minutes. You might like to know that there was one fellow who took considerable wearing down – in the beginning he was wanting to set Tom free.”
