Summary: Chapter 4

According to town lore, Maycomb is located where it is today because of the cunning maneuvers of a tavern owner in the town’s early days. Maycomb has stayed nearly the same size for 150 years, and since people rarely come but rarely leave, the same families continue to marry each other over and over. The Cunninghams and the Coninghams intermarry so frequently that legal disputes arise over which side of the family is which. Maycomb didn’t even have a paved street until 1935. But after World War II, the town grew and modernized.

As they finish their dinner, Jean Louise and Henry decide to drive out to Finch’s Landing, which is the Finch family’s old plantation, on the river, about twenty miles outside Maycomb. Jean Louise tells Henry about lots of unhappy couples in New York where the wives are insecure and the husbands have affairs.

Summary: Chapter 5

Jean Louise bumps her head getting into Henry’s car. She and Henry remember a time when they were children and Atticus was driving them to go swimming. Atticus had a roll-top car, and Jem fell out of the car on the way there. They stop for a swig of whisky from an undercover watering hole, and then they head out to Finch’s Landing.

Jean Louise thinks about Henry’s past. Although Henry had gone to law school, his real legal education began when he went to work for Atticus. Henry asks Jean Louise about Dill, the friend who played with Jean Louise and Jem all summer long, when Henry was never around to play with them. Dill went to Europe during World War II and stayed there.

Jean Louise has a flashback to the summer when Jem was eleven. She, Jem, and Dill decide to make up a story about a popular character named Tom Swift. Jem tells Jean Louise and Dill what to say. Calpurnia gives them all lemonade.

Jean Louis, Jem, and Dill decide to re-enact a revival meeting. Visiting preachers often held revivals in the Maycomb churches, and that week, Reverend Moorehead was preaching against sin in the Baptist church. They decide to hold their re-enactment in Dill’s aunt Miss Rachel’s fishpool. Jem plays Reverend Moorehead, and Dill and Jean Louise are the congregation. Jem gives a long sermon about sin, then gives a description of heaven, which is filled with Dill’s and Jean Louise’s favorite foods.

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