Part Two Chapter 17
To k** a Mockingbird
"Jem," I said, "are those the Ewells sittin' down yonder?"
"Hush," said Jem, "Mr. Heck Tate's testifyin'."
Mr. Tate had dressed for the occasion. He wore an ordinary
business suit, which made him look somehow like every other man:
gone were his high boots, lumber jacket, and bullet-studded belt. From
that moment he ceased to terrify me. He was sitting forward in the
witness chair, his hands clasped between his knees, listening
attentively to the circuit solicitor.
The solicitor, a Mr. Gilmer, was not well known to us. He was from
Abbottsville; we saw him only when court convened, and that rarely,
for court was of no special interest to Jem and me. A balding,
smooth-faced man, he could have been anywhere between forty and sixty.
Although his back was to us, we knew he had a slight cast in one of
his eyes which he used to his advantage: he seemed to be looking at
a person when he was actually doing nothing of the kind, thus he was
hell on juries and witnesses. The jury, thinking themselves under
close scrutiny, paid attention; so did the witnesses, thinking
likewise.
"...in your own words, Mr. Tate," Mr. Gilmer was saying.
"Well," said Mr. Tate, touching his gla**es and speaking to his
knees, "I was called-"
"Could you say it to the jury, Mr. Tate? Thank you. Who called you?"
Mr. Tate said, "I was fetched by Bob- by Mr. Bob Ewell yonder, one
night-"
"What night, sir?"
Mr. Tate said, "It was the night of November twenty-first. I was
just leaving my office to go home when B- Mr. Ewell came in, very
excited he was, and said get out to his house quick, some n******g'd
raped his girl."
"Did you go?"
"Certainly. Got in the car and went out as fast as I could."
"And what did you find?"
"Found her lying on the floor in the middle of the front room, one
on the right as you go in. She was pretty well beat up, but I heaved
her to her feet and she washed her face in a bucket in the corner
and said she was all right. I asked her who hurt her and she said it
was Tom Robinson-"
Judge Taylor, who had been concentrating on his fingernails,
looked up as if he were expecting an objection, but Atticus was quiet.
"-asked her if he beat her like that, she said yes he had. Asked her
if he took advantage of her and she said yes he did. So I went down to
Robinson's house and brought him back. She identified him as the
one, so I took him in. That's all there was to it."
"Thank you," said Mr. Gilmer.
Judge Taylor said, "Any questions, Atticus?"
"Yes," said my father. He was sitting behind his table; his chair
was skewed to one side, his legs were crossed and one arm was
resting on the back of his chair.
"Did you call a doctor, Sheriff? Did anybody call a doctor?" asked
Atticus.
"No sir," said Mr. Tate.
"Didn't call a doctor?"
"No sir," repeated Mr. Tate.
"Why not?" There was an edge to Atticus's voice.
"Well I can tell you why I didn't. It wasn't necessary, Mr. Finch.
She was mighty banged up. Something sho' happened, it was obvious."
"But you didn't call a doctor? While you were there did anyone
send for one, fetch one, carry her to one?"
"No sir-"
Judge Taylor broke in. "He's answered the question three times,
Atticus. He didn't call a doctor."
Atticus said, "I just wanted to make sure, Judge," and the judge
smiled.
Jem's hand, which was resting on the balcony rail, tightened
around it. He drew in his breath suddenly. Glancing below, I saw no
corresponding reaction, and wondered if Jem was trying to be dramatic.
Dill was watching peacefully, and so was Reverend Sykes beside him.
What is it? I whispered, and got a terse, "Sh-h!"
"Sheriff," Atticus was saying, "you say she was mighty banged up. In
what way?"
"Well-"
"Just describe her injuries, Heck."
"Well, she was beaten around the head. There was already bruises
comin' on her arms, and it happened about thirty minutes before-"
"How do you know?"
Mr. Tate grinned. "Sorry, that's what they said. Anyway, she was
pretty bruised up when I got there, and she had a black eye comin'."
"Which eye?"
Mr. Tate blinked and ran his hands through his hair. "Let's see," he
said softly, then he looked at Atticus as if he considered the
question childish. "Can't you remember?" Atticus asked.
Mr. Tate pointed to an invisible person five inches in front of
him and said, "Her left."
"Wait a minute, Sheriff," said Atticus. "Was it her left facing
you or her left looking the same way you were?"
Mr. Tate said, "Oh yes, that'd make it her right. It was her right
eye, Mr. Finch. I remember now, she was bunged up on that side of
her face...."
Mr. Tate blinked again, as if something had suddenly been made plain
to him. Then he turned his head and looked around at Tom Robinson.
As if by instinct, Tom Robinson raised his head.
Something had been made plain to Atticus also, and it brought him to
his feet. "Sheriff, please repeat what you said."
"It was her right eye, I said."
"No..." Atticus walked to the court reporter's desk and bent down to
the furiously scribbling hand. It stopped, flipped back the
shorthand pad, and the court reporter said, "'Mr. Finch. I remember
now she was bunged up on that side of the face.'"
Atticus looked up at Mr. Tate. "Which side again, Heck?"
"The right side, Mr. Finch, but she had more bruises- you wanta hear
about 'em?"
Atticus seemed to be bordering on another question, but he thought
better of it and said, "Yes, what were her other injuries?" As Mr.
Tate answered, Atticus turned and looked at Tom Robinson as if to
say this was something they hadn't bargained for.
"...her arms were bruised, and she showed me her neck. There were
definite finger marks on her gullet-"
"All around her throat? At the back of her neck?"
"I'd say they were all around, Mr. Finch."
"You would?"
"Yes sir, she had a small throat, anybody could'a reached around
it with-"
"Just answer the question yes or no, please, Sheriff," said
Atticus dryly, and Mr. Tate fell silent.
Atticus sat down and nodded to the circuit solicitor, who shook
his head at the judge, who nodded to Mr. Tate, who rose stiffly and
stepped down from the witness stand.
Below us, heads turned, feet scraped the floor, babies were
shifted to shoulders, and a few children scampered out of the
courtroom. The Negroes behind us whispered softly among themselves;
Dill was asking Reverend Sykes what it was all about, but Reverend
Sykes said he didn't know. So far, things were utterly dull: nobody
had thundered, there were no arguments between opposing counsel, there
was no drama; a grave disappointment to all present, it seemed.
Atticus was proceeding amiably, as if he were involved in a title
dispute. With his infinite capacity for calming turbulent seas, he
could make a rape case as dry as a sermon. Gone was the terror in my
mind of stale whiskey and barnyard smells, of sleepy-eyed sullen
men, of a husky voice calling in the night, "Mr. Finch? They gone?"
Our nightmare had gone with daylight, everything would come out all
right.
All the spectators were as relaxed as Judge Taylor, except Jem.
His mouth was twisted into a purposeful half-grin, and his eyes
happy about, and he said something about corroborating evidence, which
made me sure he was showing off.
"...Robert E. Lee Ewell!"
In answer to the clerk's booming voice, a little bantam co*k of a
man rose and strutted to the stand, the back of his neck reddening
at the sound of his name. When he turned around to take the oath, we
saw that his face was as red as his neck. We also saw no resemblance
to his namesake. A shock of wispy new-washed hair stood up from his
forehead; his nose was thin, pointed, and shiny; he had no chin to
speak of- it seemed to be part of his crepey neck.
"-so help me God," he crowed.
Every town the size of Maycomb had families like the Ewells. No
economic fluctuations changed their status- people like the Ewells
lived as guests of the county in prosperity as well as in the depths
of a depression. No truant officers could keep their numerous
offspring in school; no public health officer could free them from
congenital defects, various worms, and the diseases indigenous to
filthy surroundings.
Maycomb's Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once
a Negro cabin. The cabin's plank walls were supplemented with sheets
of corrugated iron, its roof shingled with tin cans hammered flat,
so only its general shape suggested its original design: square,
with four tiny rooms opening onto a shotgun hall, the cabin rested
uneasily upon four irregular lumps of limestone. Its windows were
merely open spaces in the walls, which in the summertime were
covered with greasy strips of cheesecloth to keep out the varmints
that feasted on Maycomb's refuse.
The varmints had a lean time of it, for the Ewells gave the dump a
thorough gleaning every day, and the fruits of their industry (those
that were not eaten) made the plot of ground around the cabin look
like the playhouse of an insane child: what pa**ed for a fence was
bits of tree-limbs, broomsticks and tool shafts, all tipped with rusty
hammer-heads, snaggle-toothed rake heads, shovels, axes and grubbing
hoes, held on with pieces of barbed wire. Enclosed by this barricade
was a dirty yard containing the remains of a Model-T Ford (on blocks),
a discarded dentist's chair, an ancient icebox, plus lesser items: old
shoes, worn-out table radios, picture frames, and fruit jars, under
which scrawny orange chickens pecked hopefully.
One corner of the yard, though, bewildered Maycomb. Against the
fence, in a line, were six chipped-enamel slop jars holding
brilliant red geraniums, cared for as tenderly as if they belonged
to Miss Maudie Atkinson, had Miss Maudie deigned to permit a
geranium on her premises. People said they were Mayella Ewell's.
Nobody was quite sure how many children were on the place. Some
people said six, others said nine; there were always several
dirty-faced ones at the windows when anyone pa**ed by. Nobody had
occasion to pa** by except at Christmas, when the churches delivered
baskets, and when the mayor of Maycomb asked us to please help the
garbage collector by dumping our own trees and trash.
Atticus took us with him last Christmas when he complied with the
mayor's request. A dirt road ran from the highway past the dump,
down to a small Negro settlement some five hundred yards beyond the
Ewells'. It was necessary either to back out to the highway or go
the full length of the road and turn around; most people turned around
in the Negroes' front yards. In the frosty December dusk, their cabins
looked neat and snug with pale blue smoke rising from the chimneys and
doorways glowing amber from the fires inside. There were delicious
smells about: chicken, bacon frying crisp as the twilight air. Jem and
I detected squirrel cooking, but it took an old countryman like
Atticus to identify possum and rabbit, aromas that vanished when we
rode back past the Ewell residence.
All the little man on the witness stand had that made him any better
than his nearest neighbors was, that if scrubbed with lye soap in very
hot water, his skin was white.
"Mr. Robert Ewell?" asked Mr. Gilmer.
"That's m'name, cap'n," said the witness.
Mr. Gilmer's back stiffened a little, and I felt sorry for him.
Perhaps I'd better explain something now. I've heard that lawyers'
children, on seeing their parents in court in the heat of argument,
get the wrong idea: they think opposing counsel to be the personal
enemies of their parents, they suffer agonies, and are surprised to
see them often go out arm-in-arm with their tormenters during the
first recess. This was not true of Jem and me. We acquired no
traumas from watching our father win or lose. I'm sorry that I can't
provide any drama in this respect; if I did, it would not be true.
We could tell, however, when debate became more acrimonious than
professional, but this was from watching lawyers other than our
father. I never heard Atticus raise his voice in my life, except to
a deaf witness. Mr. Gilmer was doing his job, as Atticus was doing
his. Besides, Mr. Ewell was Mr. Gilmer's witness, and he had no
business being rude to him of all people.
"Are you the father of Mayella Ewell?" was the next question.
"Well, if I ain't I can't do nothing about it now, her ma's dead,"
was the answer.
Judge Taylor stirred. He turned slowly in his swivel chair and
looked benignly at the witness. "Are you the father of Mayella Ewell?"
he asked, in a way that made the laughter below us stop suddenly.
"Yes sir," Mr. Ewell said meekly.
Judge Taylor went on in tones of good will: "This the first time
you've ever been in court? I don't recall ever seeing you here." At
the witness's affirmative nod he continued, "Well, let's get something
straight. There will be no more audibly obscene speculations on any
subject from anybody in this courtroom as long as I'm sitting here. Do
you understand?"
Mr. Ewell nodded, but I don't think he did. Judge Taylor sighed
and said, "All right, Mr. Gilmer?"
"Thank you, sir. Mr. Ewell, would you tell us in your own words what
happened on the evening of November twenty-first, please?"
Jem grinned and pushed his hair back. Just-in-your-own words was Mr.
Gilmer's trademark. We often wondered who else's words Mr. Gilmer
was afraid his witness might employ.
"Well, the night of November twenty-one I was comin' in from the
woods with a load o'kindlin' and just as I got to the fence I heard
Mayella screamin' like a stuck hog inside the house-"
Here Judge Taylor glanced sharply at the witness and must have
decided his speculations devoid of evil intent, for he subsided
sleepily.
"What time was it, Mr. Ewell?"
"Just 'fore sundown. Well, I was sayin' Mayella was screamin' fit to
beat Jesus-" another glance from the bench silenced Mr. Ewell.
"Yes? She was screaming?" said Mr. Gilmer.
Mr. Ewell looked confusedly at the judge. "Well, Mayella was raisin'
this holy racket so I dropped m'load and run as fast as I could but
I run into th' fence, but when I got distangled I run up to th' window
and I seen-" Mr. Ewell's face grew scarlet. He stood up and pointed
his finger at Tom Robinson. "-I seen that black n******g yonder
ruttin' on my Mayella!"
So serene was Judge Taylor's court, that he had few occasions to use
his gavel, but he hammered fully five minutes. Atticus was on his feet
at the bench saying something to him, Mr. Heck Tate as first officer
of the county stood in the middle aisle quelling the packed courtroom.
Behind us, there was an angry muffled groan from the colored people.
Reverend Sykes leaned across Dill and me, pulling at Jem's elbow.
Mr. Jem, he said, "you better take Miss Jean Louise home. Mr. Jem,
you hear me?"
Jem turned his head. "Scout, go home. Dill, you'n'Scout go home."
"You gotta make me first," I said, remembering Atticus's blessed
dictum.
Jem scowled furiously at me, then said to Reverend Sykes, "I think
it's okay, Reverend, she doesn't understand it."
I was mortally offended. "I most certainly do, I c'n understand
anything you can."
"Aw hush. She doesn't understand it, Reverend, she ain't nine yet."
Reverend Sykes's black eyes were anxious. "Mr. Finch know you all
are here? This ain't fit for Miss Jean Louise or you boys either."
Jem shook his head. "He can't see us this far away. It's all
right, Reverend."
I knew Jem would win, because I knew nothing could make him leave
now. Dill and I were safe, for a while: Atticus could see us from
where he was, if he looked.
As Judge Taylor banged his gavel, Mr. Ewell was sitting smugly in
the witness chair, surveying his handiwork. With one phrase he had
turned happy picknickers into a sulky, tense, murmuring crowd, being
slowly hypnotized by gavel taps lessening in intensity until the
only sound in the courtroom was a dim pink-pink-pink: the judge
might have been rapping the bench with a pencil.
In possession of his court once more, Judge Taylor leaned back in
his chair. He looked suddenly weary; his age was showing, and I
thought about what Atticus had said- he and Mrs. Taylor didn't kiss
much- he must have been nearly seventy.
"There has been a request," Judge Taylor said, "that this
courtroom be cleared of spectators, or at least of women and children,
a request that will be denied for the time being. People generally see
what they look for, and hear what they listen for, and they have the
right to subject their children to it, but I can a**ure you of one
thing: you will receive what you see and hear in silence or you will
leave this courtroom, but you won't leave it until the whole boiling
of you come before me on contempt charges. Mr. Ewell, you will keep
your testimony within the confines of Christian English usage, if that
is possible. Proceed, Mr. Gilmer."
Mr. Ewell reminded me of a deaf-mute. I was sure he had never
heard the words Judge Taylor directed at him- his mouth struggled
silently with them- but their import registered on his face.
Smugness faded from it, replaced by a dogged earnestness that fooled
Judge Taylor not at all: as long as Mr. Ewell was on the stand, the
judge kept his eyes on him, as if daring him to make a false move.
Mr. Gilmer and Atticus exchanged glances. Atticus was sitting down
again, his fist rested on his cheek and we could not see his face. Mr.
Gilmer looked rather desperate. A question from Judge Taylor made
him relax: "Mr. Ewell, did you see the defendant having s**ual
intercourse with your daughter?"
"Yes, I did."
The spectators were quiet, but the defendant said something. Atticus
whispered to him, and Tom Robinson was silent.
"You say you were at the window?" asked Mr. Gilmer.
"Yes sir."
"How far is it from the ground?"
"'bout three foot."
"Did you have a clear view of the room?"
"Yes sir."
"How did the room look?"
"Well, it was all slung about, like there was a fight."
"What did you do when you saw the defendant?"
"Well, I run around the house to get in, but he run out the front
door just ahead of me. I sawed who he was, all right. I was too
distracted about Mayella to run after'im. I run in the house and she
was lyin' on the floor squallin'-"
"Then what did you do?"
"Why, I run for Tate quick as I could. I knowed who it was, all
right, lived down yonder in that n******g-nest, pa**ed the house every
day. Jedge, I've asked this county for fifteen years to clean out that
nest down yonder, they're dangerous to live around 'sides devaluin' my
property-"
"Thank you, Mr. Ewell," said Mr. Gilmer hurriedly.
The witness made a hasty descent from the stand and ran smack into
Atticus, who had risen to question him. Judge Taylor permitted the
court to laugh.
"Just a minute, sir," said Atticus genially. "Could I ask you a
question or two?"
Mr. Ewell backed up into the witness chair, settled himself, and
regarded Atticus with haughty suspicion, an expression common to
Maycomb County witnesses when confronted by opposing counsel.
"Mr. Ewell," Atticus began, "folks were doing a lot of running
that night. Let's see, you say you ran to the house, you ran to the
window, you ran inside, you ran to Mayella, you ran for Mr. Tate.
Did you, during all this running, run for a doctor?"
"Wadn't no need to. I seen what happened."
"But there's one thing I don't understand," said Atticus. "Weren't
you concerned with Mayella's condition?"
"I most positively was," said Mr. Ewell. "I seen who done it."
"No, I mean her physical condition. Did you not think the nature
of her injuries warranted immediate medical attention?"
"What?"
"Didn't you think she should have had a doctor, immediately?"
The witness said he never thought of it, he had never called a
doctor to any of his'n in his life, and if he had it would have cost
him five dollars. "That all?" he asked.
"Not quite," said Atticus casually. "Mr. Ewell, you heard the
sheriff's testimony, didn't you?"
"How's that?"
"You were in the courtroom when Mr. Heck Tate was on the stand,
weren't you? You heard everything he said, didn't you?"
Mr. Ewell considered the matter carefully, and seemed to decide that
the question was safe.
"Yes," he said.
"Do you agree with his description of Mayella's injuries?"
"How's that?"
Atticus looked around at Mr. Gilmer and smiled. Mr. Ewell seemed
determined not to give the defense the time of day.
"Mr. Tate testified that her right eye was blackened, that she was
beaten around the-"
"Oh yeah," said the witness. "I hold with everything Tate said."
"You do?" asked Atticus mildly. "I just want to make sure." He
went to the court reporter, said something, and the reporter
entertained us for some minutes by reading Mr. Tate's testimony as
if it were stock-market quotations: "...which eye her left oh yes
that'd make it her right it was her right eye Mr. Finch I remember now
she was bunged." He flipped the page. "Up on that side of the face
Sheriff please repeat what you said it was her right eye I said-"
"Thank you, Bert," said Atticus. "You heard it again, Mr. Ewell.
Do you have anything to add to it? Do you agree with the sheriff?"
"I holds with Tate. Her eye was blacked and she was mighty beat up."
The little man seemed to have forgotten his previous humiliation
from the bench. It was becoming evident that he thought Atticus an
easy match. He seemed to grow ruddy again; his chest swelled, and once
more he was a red little rooster. I thought he'd burst his shirt at
Atticus's next question:
"Mr. Ewell, can you read and write?"
Mr. Gilmer interrupted. "Objection," he said. "Can't see what
witness's literacy has to do with the case, irrelevant'n'immaterial."
Judge Taylor was about to speak but Atticus said, "Judge, if
you'll allow the question plus another one you'll soon see."
"All right, let's see," said Judge Taylor, "but make sure we see,
Atticus. Overruled."
Mr. Gilmer seemed as curious as the rest of us as to what bearing
the state of Mr. Ewell's education had on the case.
"I'll repeat the question," said Atticus. "Can you read and write?"
"I most positively can."
"Will you write your name and show us?"
"I most positively will. How do you think I sign my relief checks?"
Mr. Ewell was endearing himself to his fellow citizens. The whispers
and chuckles below us probably had to do with what a card he was.
I was becoming nervous. Atticus seemed to know what he was doing-
but it seemed to me that he'd gone frog-sticking without a light.
Never, never, never, on cross-examination ask a witness a question you
don't already know the answer to, was a tenet I absorbed with my
baby-food. Do it, and you'll often get an answer you don't want, an
answer that might wreck your case.
Atticus was reaching into the inside pocket of his coat. He drew out
an envelope, then reached into his vest pocket and unclipped his
fountain pen. He moved leisurely, and had turned so that he was in
full view of the jury. He unscrewed the fountain-pen cap and placed it
gently on his table. He shook the pen a little, then handed it with
the envelope to the witness. "Would you write your name for us?" he
asked. "Clearly now, so the jury can see you do it."
Mr. Ewell wrote on the back of the envelope and looked up
complacently to see Judge Taylor staring at him as if he were some
fragrant gardenia in full bloom on the witness stand, to see Mr.
Gilmer half-sitting, half-standing at his table. The jury was watching
him, one man was leaning forward with his hands over the railing.
"What's so interestin'?" he asked.
"You're left-handed, Mr. Ewell," said Judge Taylor. Mr. Ewell turned
angrily to the judge and said he didn't see what his being left-handed
had to do with it, that he was a Christ-fearing man and Atticus
Finch was taking advantage of him. Tricking lawyers like Atticus Finch
took advantage of him all the time with their tricking ways. He had
told them what happened, he'd say it again and again- which he did.
Nothing Atticus asked him after that shook his story, that he'd looked
through the window, then ran the n******g off, then ran for the sheriff.
Atticus finally dismissed him.
Mr. Gilmer asked him one more question. "About your writing with
your left hand, are you ambidextrous, Mr. Ewell?"
"I most positively am not, I can use one hand good as the other. One
hand good as the other," he added, glaring at the defense table.
Jem seemed to be having a quiet fit. He was pounding the balcony
rail softly, and once he whispered, "We've got him."
I didn't think so: Atticus was trying to show, it seemed to me, that
Mr. Ewell could have beaten up Mayella. That much I could follow. If
her right eye was blacked and she was beaten mostly on the right
side of the face, it would tend to show that a left-handed person
did it. Sherlock Holmes and Jem Finch would agree. But Tom Robinson
could easily be left-handed, too. Like Mr. Heck Tate, I imagined a
person facing me, went through a swift mental pantomime, and concluded
that he might have held her with his right hand and pounded her with
his left. I looked down at him. His back was to us, but I could see
his broad shoulders and bull-thick neck. He could easily have done it.
I thought Jem was counting his chickens.