Chapter 5

After Atticus’s earlier warning dampens their Boo Radley game, Jem argues they can continue if they change the names. Dill sides with Jem and drifts away from Scout, prompting Scout to spend quiet summer twilights with their neighbor, Miss Maudie Atkinson.

On Miss Maudie’s porch, Scout asks about Boo. Miss Maudie calls him Arthur and insists he is alive, recalling him as a polite boy. She explains “foot-washing” Baptists who condemn pleasure and suggests some men use the Bible harshly, contrasting them with Atticus’s steady goodness. She dismisses most rumors as gossip, much of it from Miss Stephanie Crawford, and calls the Radley place a sad house.

The next morning, Jem and Dill devise a plan to invite Boo out by attaching a polite note to a fishing pole to reach a loose shutter. Scout, frightened but coerced into helping, keeps watch while Jem struggles to set the note on the sill and Dill stands ready with a dinner bell.

Atticus arrives, catches them, and firmly orders Jem, Scout, and Dill to stop tormenting Arthur Radley, to respect his privacy, and to use a front door if they must communicate. He exposes their earlier “Boo game” with a lawyer’s trick, leaving Jem chastened enough to quip he may not want to be a lawyer after all.