ystery of his house evokes in the children. He is seen in shadow, or perhaps it is not him at all. The children try to see into the house and are scared away for their trouble.
Maudie's tolerance is expressed in terms of the Radleys, but it goes much further than that. Both she and Atticus understand that human beings have their quirks and their secrets, but at heart they are all the same and should be treated the same. This will become apparent later when Atticus is enmeshed in the trial, but it applies to everyone. Miss Maudie refers to what happens behind closed doors and to the secrets people have. The children actually try a little bit of everything to learn more about Boo, and Dill wants to invite him out for ice cream while others want to spy on him. Dill and Jem decide to peek in through a window if they can. The mysteries deepen when Mr. Radley fills in the hole in the tree with cement, the hole where Jem and Scout found some objects hidden.
A couple of summers pass in these chapters. Time is presented at this point as something that seems to involve a good deal of repetition--one year follows another, with the same basic events, the same concerns, the same hopes and fears. When something unusual happens, it stands out all the more given the sameness of most of time. Most of the unusual things to this point relate to the Radleys. Jem leaves his torn pants on the fence, and when he returns for them, he finds they have been mended. When the children are outside in the cold watching the fire, someone places a blanket around Scout--the mysterious Boo Radley has emerged long enough for this act of kindness. Events of this sort make Scout question the prevailing view of Boo as someone both insane and evil. Scout is at first frightened to think that Boo was that close to her, but she comes to see that he has protected her and has been protecting her and the other children for some time.
The fire destroys Mis...