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

Mr. Radley's word was his bond, the judge was glad to do so.
The other boys attended the industrial school and received the
best secondary education to be had in the state; one of them
eventually worked his way through engineering school at Auburn. The
doors of the Radley house were closed on weekdays as well as
Sundays, and Mr. Radley's boy was not seen again for fifteen years.
But there came a day, barely within Jem's memory, when Boo Radley
was heard from and was seen by several people, but not by Jem. He said
Atticus never talked much about the Radleys: when Jem would question
him Atticus's only answer was for him to mind his own business and let
the Radleys mind theirs, they had a right to; but when it happened Jem
said Atticus shook his head and said, "Mm, mm, mm."
So Jem received most of his information from Miss Stephanie
Crawford, a neighborhood scold, who said she knew the whole thing.
According to Miss Stephanie, Boo was sitting in the livingroom cutting
some items from The Maycomb Tribune to paste in his scrapbook. His
father entered the room. As Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the
scissors into his parent's leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his
pants, and resumed his activities.
Mrs. Radley ran screaming into the street that Arthur was killing
them all, but when the sheriff arrived he found Boo still sitting in
the livingroom, cutting up the Tribune. He was thirty-three years
old then.
Miss Stephanie said old Mr. Radley said no Radley was going to any
asylum, when it was suggested that a season in Tuscaloosa might be
helpful to Boo. Boo wasn't crazy, he was high-strung at times. It
was all right to shut him up, Mr. Radley conceded, but insisted that
Boo not be charged with anything: he was not a criminal. The sheriff
hadn't the heart to put him in jail alongside Negroes, so Boo was
locked in the courthouse basement.
Boo's transition from the basement to back home was nebulous in
Jem's memory. Miss Stephanie Crawford said some of the town council
told Mr. Radley that if he didn't take Boo back, Boo would die of mold
from the damp. Besides, Boo could not live forever on the bounty of
the county.
Nobody knew what form of intimidation Mr. Radley employed to keep
Boo out of sight, but Jem figured that Mr. Radley kept him chained
to the bed most of the time. Atticus said no, it wasn't that sort of
thing, that there were other ways of making people into ghosts.
My memory came alive to see Mrs. Radley occasionally open the
front door, walk to the edge of the porch, and pour water on her
cannas. But every day Jem and I would see Mr. Radley walking to and
from town. He was a thin leathery man with colorless eyes, so
colorless they did not reflect light. His cheekbones were sharp and
his mouth was wide, with a thin upper lip and a full lower lip. Miss
Stephanie Crawford said he was so upright he took the word of God as
his only law, and we believed her, because Mr. Radley's posture was
ramrod straight.
He never spoke to us. When he passed we would look at the ground and
say, "Good morning, sir," and he would cough in reply. Mr. Radley's