[0:02]Welcome back to Maycomb. Summer is coming to an end, which means that Dill must return to his mom in Mississippi. Scout and Jem will really miss him. The last two summers with Dill have been a blast. On Dill's last night, the trio try one last time to catch a glimpse of that secretive monster, Boo Radley. Nothing like a bit of trespass to spice things up. But it all goes wrong. Not only did they not see Boo through the back window of the house, but someone also fired a shotgun over their heads as they escaped. Things get even stickier when Jem loses his trousers while crawling under the Radley's back fence. Everyone who came out to investigate the sound of the shotgun, sees him in his underwear. Talk about being caught with your pants down. Jem, always the daredevil, risks his life a second time that night by retrieving his pants at 2:00 a.m. His mission is successful, but he returns home in a very strange mood. Jem doesn't say what happened, but something definitely had.
[1:19]It takes Jem a week to spill the beans. Finally, he comes out with it. When he'd retrieved his trousers, someone had sewn them up and folded them neatly over the Radley's back fence. How bizarre! Even more strange is the appearance of five more lots of gifts in the Radley's oak tree. Scout and Jem decide to write a letter to whoever was leaving the gifts. Sadly, before they could deliver the letter to the tree's not hole, Nathan Radley, Boo's older brother, filled it up with cement. What a party pooper! The fun returns when it snows in Maycomb, for the first time since 1885. Scout and Jem make the most of this rare event by building a snowman. They name him Mr. Avery after the chubby, mean fellow who lives across the street. They do such a good job that Atticus tells them to disguise it. Then, one frozen night, disaster strikes. At 1:00 in the morning, Atticus hauls the children out of bed and out onto the street. Miss Maudie's house is burning down. The men of Maycomb fight to save her house, but it's no good. The fire roars and her house collapses. All the children can do is stand at the Radley's front gate and watch it all happen. Scout never even realizes when Boo Radley gently places a blanket around her shoulders. Atticus puts two and two together when he sees the new blanket on her. When he tells Scout who did it, she nearly throws up. Speaking of Atticus, there are rumors going around town. Some people are unhappy that he's defending an African-American man named Tom Robinson. Racist gossip filters into the schoolyard and a bully named Cecil Jacobs starts hassling Scout. He throws the N word around and makes it sound as if Atticus is doing something wrong. He's only doing his job. Atticus explains to Scout that he's defending Tom Robinson because it's the right thing to do. Even though he knows he's going to lose. He warns her that things might get ugly, but to hold her head high. Scout holds her head high for three weeks, before teaching someone a lesson with her fists. At Christmas, Scout's cousin Francis starts hassling Scout the way Cecil Jacobs did. So, she smacks Francis in the teeth with a solid left hook. Uncle Jack had to stop her from knocking his block off entirely. Later that night, Scout overhears Atticus and Uncle Jack speaking about the Tom Robinson case. Tom has been accused of a crime by a white family, the Ewells. Remember Burris Ewell, the lice infested creature from last lesson? Yeah, those Ewells. This case means trouble for the Finches and the whole town of Maycomb. Since Atticus was 50 at the time, wore glasses, and was an office worker, Scout considered him feeble. How was he going to protect the family from the anger of Maycomb's racists? Looks like it's up to Scout to defend the family's honor. But Atticus has some impressive hidden skills. When the safety of the town is threatened, Atticus takes action. Poor old Tim Johnson, a beloved dog in Maycomb, catches rabies and goes mad. If he bites anyone, they could catch this deadly disease. The town's sheriff, Mr. Heck Tate, brings his rifle, but can't take the shot. Tim Johnson's too far away. As the children watch in awe, Atticus takes the rifle and crack! Poor Tim Johnson never knew what hit him. And that's when the children learn their father's old nickname, one shot Finch. Not so feeble after all. Having survived Boo Radley, a fire, and a mad dog, Scout and Jem now have to face an even bigger enemy. Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose. She was a racist old dragon lady who always yelled insults at the children. One day, it got so bad that Jem lost his mind and cut the tops off her prized camellias. As punishment, Jem had to read aloud to her. Not once, but six days a week for a whole month. Talk about torture! Scout went with him for moral support. Inside her bedroom, the children soon realized how sick she really was. Not long into Jem reading, Mrs. Dubose would start drooling and pass out. The truth is, Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict. She was also dying, but before she died, she wanted to be free of the drug. Having Jem read to her was a way of distracting herself from the terrible pain of morphine withdrawal. One day, Mrs. Dubose finally releases Jem from his punishment. She dies a month later, free from morphine's grip. Having known her history well, Atticus thought Mrs. Dubose was the bravest person he ever knew. It seems that courage comes in all different forms, with the Tom Robinson case looming on the horizon, the Finch children will
