To Kill a Mockingbird - Chapter 17
Harper Lee
Part Two Chapter 17

To Kill 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 glasses 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 nigger'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 cock 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 passed 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 passed by. Nobody had

occasion to pass 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 nigger 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 assure 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 sexual

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 nigger-nest, passed 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 nigger 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.
Write the lyrics for a misc song made in 1960, titled "To Kill a Mockingbird - Chapter 17", by artist "Harper Lee".