September had come, but not a trace of cool weather with it, and we were still sleeping on the back screen porch . A bug had crawled onto the porch. Jem gave me a look when I went to smush it.
“Why couldn’t’ I mash him?” I asked.
“Because they don’t bother you,” Jem answered in the darkness.
“Reckon you’re at the stage now where you don’t kill flies and mosquitoes now, I reckon,” I said. “Lemme know when you change your mind. Tell you one thing though, I ain’t gonna sit around and not kill this bug.”
“Aw, dry up,” he answered drowsily.
Jem was the one who was getting more like a girl every day, not I. I was thinking of Dill. He had left us the first of the month saying that he would be back the minute school was out. Dill told me of the time he and Jem were swimming and on their way back, they saw Atticus driving up the road. He stopped and Jem begged for a ride. Atticus finally agreed. He and Calpurnia were on their way to Tom Robinson’s place.
They turned off the highway, rode slowly by the dump and past the Ewell house, down the narrow road to the Negro cabins. Dill said a crowd of black children were playing marbles in Tom’s front yard. Atticus parked the car and got out. Calpurnia followed him through the front gate.
Dill heard him ask one of the children, “Where’s your mother, Sam?” and heard Sam say, “She down at Sis Steven’s, Mr. Finch. Want me run get her?”
Dill said Atticus looked uncertain, then he said yes, and Sam ran off. “Go on with your game, boys,” Atticus said to the children.
A little girl came to the door and she needed some help getting up the steps. Dill said that Atticus offered her his finger to help her and then gave her over to Calpurnia.
