Go on, please sir.

Why, I didnt think youd hold it against me, he said. Im disappointed in youyou had that coming and you know it.

Didnt either.

Honey, you cant go around calling people

You aint fair, I said, you aint fair.

Uncle Jacks eyebrows went up. Not fair? How not?

Youre real nice, Uncle Jack, an I reckon I love you even after what you did, but you dont understand children much.

Uncle Jack put his hands on his hips and looked down at me. And why do I not understand children, Miss Jean Louise? Such conduct as yours required little understanding. It was obstreperous, disorderly, and abusive

You gonna give me a chance to tell you? I dont mean to sass you, Im just tryin to tell you.

Uncle Jack sat down on the bed. His eyebrows came together, and he peered up at me from under them. Proceed, he said.

I took a deep breath. Well, in the first place you never stopped to gimme a chance to tell you my side of ityou just lit right into me. When Jem an I fuss Atticus doesnt ever just listen to Jems side of it, he hears mine too, an in the second place you told me never to use words like that except in extreme provocation, and Francis provocated me enough to knock his block off

Uncle Jack scratched his head. What was your side of it, Scout?

Francis called Atticus somethin, an I wasnt about to take it off him.

What did Francis call him?

A nigger-lover. I aint very sure what it means, but the way Francis said ittell you one thing right now, Uncle Jack, Ill beI swear before God if Ill sit there and let him say somethin about Atticus.

He called Atticus that?

Yes sir, he did, an a lot more. Said Atticusd be the ruination of the family an he let Jem an me run wild. . . .

From the look on Uncle Jacks face, I thought I was in for it again. When he said, Well see about this, I knew Francis was in for it. Ive a good mind to go out there tonight.

Please sir, just let it go. Please.

Ive no intention of letting it go, he said. Alexandra should know about this. The idea ofwaitll I get my hands on that boy. . . .

Uncle Jack, please promise me somethin, please sir. Promise you wont tell Atticus about this. Hehe asked me one time not to let anything I heard about him make me mad, an Id ruther him think we were fightin about somethin else instead. Please promise . . .

But I dont like Francis getting away with something like that

He didnt. You reckon you could tie up my hand? Its still bleedin some.

Of course I will, baby. I know of no hand I would be more delighted to tie up. Will you come this way?

Uncle Jack gallantly bowed me to the bathroom. While he cleaned and bandaged my knuckles, he entertained me with a tale about a funny nearsighted old gentleman who had a cat named Hodge, and who counted all the cracks in the sidewalk when he went to town. There now, he said. Youll have a very unladylike scar on your wedding-ring finger.

Thank you sir. Uncle Jack?

Maam?

Whats a whore-lady?

Uncle Jack plunged into another long tale about an old Prime Minister who sat in the House of Commons and blew feathers in the air and tried to keep them there when all about him men were losing their heads. I guess he was trying to answer my question, but he made no sense whatsoever.

Later, when I was supposed to be in bed, I went down the hall for a drink of water and heard Atticus and Uncle Jack in the livingroom:

I shall never marry, Atticus.

Why?

I might have children.

Atticus said, Youve a lot to learn, Jack.

I know. Your daughter gave me my first lesson this afternoon. She said I didnt understand children much and told me why. She was quite right. Atticus, she told me how I should have treated heroh dear, Im so sorry I romped on her.

Atticus chuckled. She earned it, so dont feel too remorseful.

I waited, on tenterhooks, for Uncle Jack to tell Atticus my side of it. But he didnt. He simply murmured, Her use of bathroom invective leaves nothing to the imagination. But she doesnt know the meaning of half she saysshe asked me what a whore-lady was . . .