A Book of Poetry

My ancestor Simon Finch, from southwest England, tried his best to cross the Atlantic and finally went north to St. Stephens. He made a fortune by practicing medicine and selling medicine. Later, he forgot the religious precepts, bought three slaves and set up his own home, Finch Manor, on the Alabama River. The men in the family stay here and grow cotton for a living.

The civil war plundered Simon's descendants, leaving only the land. The tradition that our family lived on land was not broken by my father's generation until the twentieth century.

My father Addicks Finch went to Montgomery to study law, and his brother went to Boston to study medicine. Only my aunt Alexandra stayed to look after the manor.

My father returned to Mecom as an intern after he was qualified as a lawyer. His office is in the county government building. There is almost nothing in it except a clothes hanger, a spittoon, a chessboard and a clean Alabama code.

In the first five years of business, he scrimped and saved to help his brother finish his studies. After my uncle's self-reliance, the income from the law is still quite good. As a native of Mecom County, he likes it here. He is familiar with the people here and people are familiar with him. Because Simon Finch is sincere about his business, Addicks is related to almost every family in the town by blood or by marriage.

My family lives on the street in the residential area of town-Adix, Jim and I, and Ka Glacia who cooks for us. My brother and I are very content to have such a father: he plays with us, reads to us and always treats us kindly and fairly. Glacia is another matter. She always orders me to leave the kitchen, saying that I am not as honest and obedient as Jim. The war between us is protracted, and Addicks will always be on her side.

My mother died of a heart attack when I was two years old, so I have no impression of her. Her surname is Graham, younger than her father 15 years old, from Montgomery. Addicks met her when she was first elected to the state legislature. I don't miss my mother, but Jim misses her very much He clearly remembers her voice and smile.

Our summer activity area is to let two families go to Mrs. Dubos's house in the north and three families go to Radley's house in the south. We have never thought of crossing this line, because there is an unidentified guy living in Radley's house, but listening to people talk about his appearance is enough to make us honest for several days. Mrs. Dubos is a formidable demon.

In the summer when I was almost six years old and Jim was almost ten years old, Deere came into our lives. Deere is Miss Rachel's nephew and lives in Meridian, Mississippi. This time I went through the summer vacation next month, and I will live in Mecom every summer.

Dill is a newcomer. He will tell many wonderful and interesting stories, and his mind is full of fantastic ideas, incredible desires and absurd fantasies. From then on, we all spent our summers in daily activities and had a good time. These activities include: renovating the wooden house, shouting for a while, and then performing some scripts adapted from popular science and science fiction.

However, by the end of August, our activities had become dull because of repeated performances. At this time, Deere gave us an idea: draw the eccentric Radley out.

People say that there is a vicious ghost living in the Radley family, and all the bad things in the town are related to him, but Jim and I have never seen it with our own eyes. But the house was shrouded in shadows long before Jim and I were born, and they chose to live alone, which is an unforgivable quirk of Mecom town. But Addicks never mentioned the Radleys. Every time Jim asks, Addicks's only answer is to let him mind his own business and let the Radleys mind their own business. This is their due right.

Deere bet a Gray Ghost and Jim's two Tom Swifts that Jim was afraid to enter Radley's house. Under Dill's repeated encouragement and stimulation, Jim ran over and patted the Radley house hard, then turned and rushed back. When we were staring across the street, we seemed to see that the shutters inside moved slightly, almost imperceptibly, and then the whole house died again.

After the summer vacation, Deere returned to Meridian, and I started my first-year school life.

My teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, comes from Winston County, which does not belong to Alabama, and is born with regional characteristics. In the first grade, she introduced Dewey's idea that education is life, and thought that reading should start with a blank sheet of paper. She doesn't understand that Cunningham people never take other people's things for nothing (whether it's church charity baskets or government relief vouchers).

The first morning, she grabbed me in front of the classroom, slapped my palm with a ruler and made me stand in the corner until noon. Miss Caroline and I had an argument about whether Addicks taught me to read and why Walter Cunningham forgot to bring lunch, which annoyed me.

After school, I caught Walter Cunningham to vent my anger, but Jim stopped me. Jim invited him home to have lunch with us. Jim said that our father and his father are friends, and what I just did was crazy. If I had known how Jim's kind invitation saved the lives of Eddie and Tom Robinson, I wouldn't have been so rude to Walter, I would have seen Jim's kindness and foresight, and I wouldn't have hated Ka Glacia for giving me a burning slap in the face.

Every evening, as soon as we saw Addicks turn around from the distant post office, we rushed all the way to meet him, which has become a habit. I had a very unpleasant day, although Ka Glacia made me tacos and was very friendly. But the thought of losing my time studying with Addicks makes me depressed. After dinner, I had a meaningful exchange with Addicks.

Jim and I found two pieces of chewing gum and a tin foil bag (containing two polished coins) in the hole at the junction of two big oak trees next to Radley's house. After the summer vacation, Deere arrived as promised, and we were tired of the previous games. Jim proposed to play the latest and unique-eccentric Radley.

Summer has passed and our game is moving forward day by day. We kept polishing and perfecting, adding dialogue and plot, and finally formed a little drama. Every day when it's on, we always have new tricks, but I've always wanted to quit the show. First of all, I realized that Addicks already knew what we were playing. Secondly, the day I rolled into Radley's front yard in the tire, I heard someone in the room give a low laugh.

I kept nagging Jim, and he finally agreed to suspend the performance. But Deere has become a disgusting nuisance, circling Jim's ass all day. At dusk after that summer, I spent most of the time sitting on his front porch with Miss Modi.

Summer nights are long and quiet. Miss Modi and I often sit silently on her front porch, watching the sunset slowly setting, the sky changing from gold to pink, and watching groups of purple swallows pass by our house and disappear behind the rows of roofs of the school. One night, I asked her a lot about the eccentric Radley.

Deere and Jim didn't stop. They are going to send a message to eccentric Radley. I joined their fears. While we were carrying out the plan, Eddie appeared.

"What Mr Ridley does is his own business. If he wants to leave the house, he will come out. If he wants to stay indoors, he also has the right to stay in the house ... "Finally, he explicitly forbade us to go near the house again unless someone invited us.

Deere spent the last night in Mecom this year, encouraging us to take a walk in the street. In fact, he and Jim want to see if we can peep at the eccentric Radley through the loose shutters. I have no choice but to join their action. We think it's best to drill under the barbed wire behind Radley's yard, so it's not easy to be found.

We tried to bypass the shutters and saw nothing, but Jim didn't give up and motioned for us to turn around and have a look. When Jim climbed to the window and looked up, a man appeared, still wearing a hat. I saw the shadow walking briskly across the back porch towards Jim. He stopped about a foot in front of Jim, and an arm stretched out from him and fell down again. Stay where you are, then turn around, walk back from Jim again, turn along the corridor to one side of the house and disappear.

We retreated immediately. Halfway through, we heard a gunshot, which broke the peace around us. During the escape, Jim kicked off his trousers and broke free from the barbed wire. To cover up the fact, he went to Radley's house to get his pants at two o'clock in the morning.

Jim became moody and didn't talk much for a whole week after he got his pants back that morning. One afternoon after school, we walked home across the campus. Jim told me about his experience that morning.

"When I broke free from my trousers, it was wrapped around the wire. I couldn't untie it at that time, but when I got back there ... my pants were neatly folded and put on the fence ... as if waiting for me to get them ... When I got home, I showed you ... The pants were sewn ... not like a woman, but a man who worked hard to sew them like me ... "

We found miniature statues of two children (Jim and me), a whole pack of chewing gum, a medal that has become dim, a pocket watch that can't walk and an aluminum knife taken out of the oak hole. When we put the thank-you note into the tree hole, we found that the tree hole was sealed with cement.

That autumn unexpectedly turned into winter. Addicks said that the two weeks this winter were the coldest since 1885. It was this winter that old Mrs. Radley passed away.

Snowflakes are floating in the sky. Since 1885, there has been no snow in Mecom town, and the school has been closed for one day. After breakfast, Jim and I collected a lot of snow and made a snowman that looked like Mr. Avery. That night, I was awakened by Addicks. Miss Modi's house caught fire, and everyone at Mecom went out, including Nathan Radley and the eccentric Radley. In the chaotic house, the eccentric Mr. Radley slipped out of the house, crept up to us and covered me with a blanket, but I didn't even notice. Jim poured out all our secrets.

Cisel Jacobs boasted on campus that my father defended "niggers". I don't know what he meant by this. Ask Jim. Jim asked me to ask Eddie.

"I'm just defending a black man-his name is Tom Robinson ... Glacia knows their family very well. She said that Tom's family is polite and clean, if ... "

"If you shouldn't defend him, then why did you do it?"

"... if I don't do this, I won't be able to hold my head up in the town, I won't be able to represent the county government in the parliament, and I'm not even qualified to teach you and Jim how to behave ... You may hear some people swearing about this at school, but please do something for me, if you like-then hold your head high and put down your fist. No matter what others say to you, don't be angry. Try to fight with your mind ... "

"Addicks, will we win?"

"No chance, baby."

"That-why ..."

"We can't give up fighting for victory just because we were defeated in the past 100." Addicks said.

"This time we are not fighting the Yankees, but fighting our friends. But you have to remember that no matter what kind of deep hatred, they are still our friends and this is still our home. "

When I was at school, I firmly remembered what Addicks said. I'd rather be called a coward, which gives me a noble feeling. This noble feeling lasted for three weeks. Then, Christmas came and disaster came.

Uncle Jack arrived as scheduled, and we visited Finch Manor together. Frances, the grandson of Aunt Alexandre Decca, said that Addicks had a lot of ugly words, saying that Addicks was a nigger sympathizer, which ruined the family reputation and made Jim and I run around, leading to a big fight with him. When Uncle Jack learned the actual situation, he stopped blaming me and told me a joke to bandage my wound. That night, I should go to bed. I crossed the aisle to drink water and heard Addicks and Uncle Jack talking in the living room. It took me many years to realize that he actually wanted me to hear everything he said.

Our father knows nothing. As soon as he got to work, he stayed in the office all day instead of the grocery store. He doesn't drive a loading and unloading truck in the county, he's not a sheriff, he doesn't farm or repair cars. Anything that may be envied and admired has nothing to do with him.

Most of my classmates' fathers like to do things he doesn't even touch: never hunt, never play poker, never fish, never drink, never smoke. He just likes sitting in the living room reading books and newspapers.

Although Miss Modi said that we are lucky to have a father of this age, she said that Addicks can help people write their wills in a watertight way. He is also the best chess player in town (Jim and I beat him every time), and he can also play the single-reed harmonica. But I still don't think Addicks can do anything. However, when Addicks shot Tim, the crazy hound, with a light, consistent and accurate gun action, Jim and I were shocked.

After Addicks gave us two air guns at Christmas, he refused to teach us how to shoot.

One day, Eddie said to Jim ... but I know you will definitely shoot birds. It doesn't matter how many blue jay you shoot, as long as you can hit it, but remember, To Kill a Mockingbird is a crime. "That was the first time I heard Adick say that an act was a crime, so I asked Miss Modi.

"Robins just hum beautiful music for people to enjoy and don't do bad things. They don't eat flowers, fruits and vegetables grown in other people's yards, and they don't nest in barns. They just sing for us. So To Kill a Mockingbird is a crime. "

Mrs Dubos is a lonely old woman, and Jim and I hate her very much.

Every time she passed by her house, she always glanced at us with angry eyes, questioned our words and deeds mercilessly, and even had to put up with her inference about our future-doing nothing. This made Jim very angry, but Eddie always comforted him and said, "She is an old lady, and she is still ill. You look like a gentleman with your head held high. Whatever she says to you, don't lose your temper. This is what you should do. "

When Mrs. Dubos said that Eddie helped niggers in court, Jim lost his mind and interrupted all the camellias in Mrs. Dubos's yard.

Addicks passed by Mrs. Dubos's door after work and learned about it. He asked Jim to talk to Mrs Dubos alone. In return, he will read for Mrs. Dubos for a month and a week. After reading it, we were completely relieved.

One night, Eddie read us a column by Wendy Heaton. The telephone rang, Eddie went to Mrs. Dubos's house, and Mrs. Dubos died. He came back with a candy box in his hand.

It turns out that Mrs Dubos relies on morphine to relieve pain. She could have spent the rest of her life on it without dying so painfully, but she insisted on competing with herself. "She said that she would leave this world cleanly, without owing anyone or relying on anything" and "as comfortable as the mountain wind, she was almost awake until the last moment ..."

"Jim, it's over. You know, she is a great and outstanding lady. "

"Noble lady? She said so many bad things about you, and you still treat her as a distinguished lady? "

"She deserves it. She has her own views on all kinds of things, which may be quite different from mine ... Son, I told you that if you hadn't lost your mind and got into trouble that time, I would let you study for her.

I want you to learn something from her-I want you to see what is really brave, not to think that a man with a gun in his hand is brave. Courage is knowing that you are doomed to lose before you start, but you still do it without hesitation and stick to it no matter what happens. A person rarely wins, but there will always be a time ... Mrs. Dubos won ... She is the bravest person I have ever met.

Jim opened the candy box, which contained a flawless white camellia.