As a first grader, Scout gets out of school thirty minutes earlier than Jem does, which means she must walk home without him. She runs past the Radley place each day because the children have made Arthur Radley into a legendary monster, even though they've never seen him. One day as she is running past, she notices a piece of tinfoil "winking at me in the afternoon sun" from one of the two oak trees...
As a first grader, Scout gets out of school thirty minutes earlier than Jem does, which means she must walk home without him. She runs past the Radley place each day because the children have made Arthur Radley into a legendary monster, even though they've never seen him. One day as she is running past, she notices a piece of tinfoil "winking at me in the afternoon sun" from one of the two oak trees on the Radley lot. The tinfoil is sticking out of a knot-hole that is about as high off the ground as Scout is tall. She reaches into the knot-hole and takes out two pieces of chewing gum--without their wrappers. Not wanting to spend any more time than necessary on Radley property, she runs home quickly with the gum in her hand. She sniffs it and examines it once she reaches the safety of her front porch. She thinks it looks fine, but she still licks it and waits a while before cramming it into her mouth. At that point she can tell that it's Wrigley's Double-Mint gum.
When Jem comes home and notices her chewing a huge wad of gum, he wants to know where she got it. She divulges that she found it inside one of the Radleys' trees, and he commands her to spit it out immediately. He stamps his foot and warns her that she'll get killed if she even touches a Radley tree. He tells her she must gargle or he'll tell Calpurnia on her, and she reluctantly complies, not wanting to rinse the taste away but fearing Calpurnia's wrath.
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