"Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lee Harper)

boundaries (within calling distance of Calpurnia) were Mrs. Henry
Lafayette Dubose's house two doors to the north of us, and the
Radley Place three doors to the south. We were never tempted to
break them. The Radley Place was inhabited by an unknown entity the
mere description of whom was enough to make us behave for days on end;
Mrs. Dubose was plain hell.
That was the summer Dill came to us.
Early one morning as we were beginning our day's play in the back
yard, Jem and I heard something next door in Miss Rachel Haverford's
collard patch. We went to the wire fence to see if there was a
puppy- Miss Rachel's rat terrier was expecting- instead we found
someone sitting looking at us. Sitting down, he wasn't much higher
than the collards. We stared at him until he spoke:
"Hey."
"Hey yourself," said Jem pleasantly.
"I'm Charles Baker Harris," he said. "I can read."
"So what?" I said.
"I just thought you'd like to know I can read. You got anything
needs readin' I can do it...."
"How old are you," asked Jem, "four-and-a-half?"
"Goin' on seven."
"Shoot no wonder, then," said Jem, jerking his thumb at me. "Scout
yonder's been readin' ever since she was born, and she ain't even
started to school yet. You look right puny for goin' on seven."
"I'm little but I'm old," he said.
Jem brushed his hair back to get a better look. "Why don't you
come over, Charles Baker Harris?" he said. "Lord, what a name."
"'s not any funnier'n yours. Aunt Rachel says your name's Jeremy
Atticus Finch."
Jem scowled. "I'm big enough to fit mine," he said. "Your name's
longer'n you are. Bet it's a foot longer."
"Folks call me Dill," said Dill, struggling under the fence.
"Do better if you go over it instead of under it," I said.
"Where'd you come from?"
Dill was from Meridian, Mississippi, was spending the summer with
his aunt, Miss Rachel, and would be spending every summer in Maycomb
from now on. His family was from Maycomb County originally, his mother
worked for a photographer in Meridian, had entered his picture in a
Beautiful Child contest and won five dollars. She gave the money to
Dill, who went to the picture show twenty times on it.
"Don't have any picture shows here, except Jesus ones in the
courthouse sometimes," said Jem. "Ever see anything good?"
Dill had seen Dracula, * a revelation that moved Jem to eye him
with the beginning of respect. "Tell it to us," he said.

* In DOS versions italicized text is enclosed in chevrons.

Dill was a curiosity. He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his
shirt, his hair was snow white and stuck to his head like duckfluff;
he was a year my senior but I towered over him. As he told us the