TKAM Chapter 7

  For a week after the night of retrieving his pants, Jem was silent and moody, and Scout left him alone. School's started again, and Scout is in second grade and Jem is in sixth. Scout's frustrated that in second grade, they still don't read and write yet, some of her classmates from first grade are repeating. On one afternoon when they're walking home from school, Jem tells Scout what really happened on the night. When they had been running, the pants had gotten caught on the fence and were tangled there. However, when Jem had gone back to get them, they were folded across the fence, and sewed up, but not as neatly as a lady would have sewn them. It was as if someone knew Jem would be coming back for them. Jem's been thinking about that night a lot, and he's kind of uneasy about it if he's been quiet all week. They pass the knothole, and inside is a ball of twine, and some days later, they find two carved dolls, Jem and Scout. Some more things they find in the knothole are: a whole package of gum, a tarnished medal, and a pocket watch that wouldn't run, on a chain with an aluminum knife. They wanted to write a letter to whoever was leaving the things in the knothole, but the day they decide to leave the letter, Jem finds the knothole was filled with cement. Nathan Radley claimed since the tree was dying, he filled it with cement. That evening though, they asked Atticus if the tree on the Radley property was dying, and he pointed out its leaves are still green and stuff, it's healthy.

Jem had found his pants all folded and sewed up and stuff, but sewing didn't look like it was done by a lady; Jem even said that it looked like the quality of a job that he would do: someone of the male gender maybe. The fence was between the Radley property and the schoolyard, maybe Boo came out of the house and did that for Jem. Nathan Radley couldn't have folded it and all, he was busy telling the neighborhood he was going to shoot anyone and anything else that got onto his property. Comment below if you also have a million questions about all the stuff Jem and Scout have found in the knothole. Someone has been leaving them gum, two coins, a ball of string, two carved figures of them, more gum, etc. Who keeps putting things in the knothole? If it was Boo, why would he leave them that stuff? If it's a child's, why would they keep putting stuff there for no reason? Another thing, why would Nathan Radley fill up the knothole with cement if the tree isn't dying? As Atticus pointed out, it's as healthy as Jem.