Halloween was coming, and this year we were having a play. Mrs. Grace Merriweather had composed an original play, and I was going to be a ham. She thought I would be adorable if some of the children were costumed to represent the county’s food products: Cecil Jacobs would be dressed up to look like a cow; Agnes Boone would make a lovely butterbean , another child would be a peanut, and on down the line. Our only jobs, as far as I could gather from our two practices, were to enter from stage left as Mrs. Merriweather identified us. When she called out “PORK”, that was my cue.
A few hours before the play I practiced my part for Calpurnia in the kitchen and she said I was wonderful. I wanted to go across the street to show Miss Maudie, but Jem said she’d probably be at the play anyway.
After that, it didn’t matter whether they went or not. Jem said he would take me. Thus began our longest journey together.
