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

Our first raid came to pass only because Dill bet Jem The Gray
Ghost against two Tom Swifts that Jem wouldn't get any farther than
the Radley gate. In all his life, Jem had never declined a dare.
Jem thought about it for three days. I suppose he loved honor more
than his head, for Dill wore him down easily: "You're scared," Dill
said, the first day. "Ain't scared, just respectful," Jem said. The
next day Dill said, "You're too scared even to put your big toe in the
front yard." Jem said he reckoned he wasn't, he'd passed the Radley
Place every school day of his life.
"Always runnin'," I said.
But Dill got him the third day, when he told Jem that folks in
Meridian certainly weren't as afraid as the folks in Maycomb, that
he'd never seen such scary folks as the ones in Maycomb.
This was enough to make Jem march to the corner, where he stopped
and leaned against the light-pole, watching the gate hanging crazily
on its homemade hinge.
"I hope you've got it through your head that he'll kill us each
and every one, Dill Harris," said Jem, when we joined him. "Don't
blame me when he gouges your eyes out. You started it, remember."
"You're still scared," murmured Dill patiently.
Jem wanted Dill to know once and for all that he wasn't scared of
anything: "It's just that I can't think of a way to make him come
out without him gettin' us." Besides, Jem had his little sister to
think of.
When he said that, I knew he was afraid. Jem had his little sister
to think of the time I dared him to jump off the top of the house: "If
I got killed, what'd become of you?" he asked. Then he jumped,
landed unhurt, and his sense of responsibility left him until
confronted by the Radley Place.
"You gonna run out on a dare?" asked Dill. "If you are, then-"
"Dill, you have to think about these things," Jem said. "Lemme think
a minute... it's sort of like making a turtle come out..."
"How's that?" asked Dill.
"Strike a match under him."
I told Jem if he set fire to the Radley house I was going to tell
Atticus on him.
Dill said striking a match under a turtle was hateful.
"Ain't hateful, just persuades him- 's not like you'd chunk him in
the fire," Jem growled.
"How do you know a match don't hurt him?"
"Turtles can't feel, stupid," said Jem.
"Were you ever a turtle, huh?"
"My stars, Dill! Now lemme think... reckon we can rock him...."
Jem stood in thought so long that Dill made a mild concession: "I
won't say you ran out on a dare an' I'll swap you The Gray Ghost
if you just go up and touch the house."
Jem brightened. "Touch the house, that all?"
Dill nodded.
"Sure that's all, now? I don't want you hollerin' something
different the minute I get back."