eping the teacher happy -- allowing her to pretend that she is an authority even while she is clearly wrong. In almost every event where the children can learn, their father places them in the position to make the most of the opportunity. The episode with Mrs. DuBose is a good example of this. But learning takes place on the biggest scale in the cases of Boo Radley and the trial of Tom Robinson.
The primary action takes place in summers when the children are out of school and are joined by a friend named Dill who spends his vacations with his aunt next door to the Finch house. One of the principal preoccupations of the children is the mysterious "Boo," Arthur Radley, who has not been seen outside his house in decades. The Radley family were religious fanatics who kept him confined after he got into some trouble as a young man and he has never been seen outside his house since then -- except by those who claimed that he roamed around at night and did all kinds of terrible things. His name alone was enough to frighten Jem and Scout but as they got older they began trying to get him to come out of his house. They even managed to establish a form of communication with him though only Jem was ever very sure that it was Boo who was leaving things for them in a hollow tree. In the end Boo Radley saves Scout's and Jem's lives and the thing they feared most is shown to be harmless while the things they took for granted are revealed to cover a great deal of hypocrisy and some evil.
In the trial of Tom Robinson the accuse
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