August 19th, 1937

  Dill is gone now, and school began. It will be same and boring days from now on. Jem’s words do not help me at all, but I appreciate him trying to make me feel better about school. Someone is keep putting their things in the knot hole. It started with a ball of grey twine. And then, there were soaps carved into a figure of a boy and a girl, which I think is Jem and I even though I didn’t say anything about. It was followed by a pack of gum, a silver medal, watch, and a knife. At first, we thought it is possible that the knot hole is someone’s hiding place. However, no one took it back, so we considered it as a gift for us. But who would do such thing? Jem is quite sure that the gifts are from Boo. I was thinking of him as one of the possible people, so I agreed with him. We decided to send him a letter and put it in the knot hole. However, it was filled in with cement by Mr. Radley. He told us that the tree was old and dying, but when we asked Atticus, he said it was healthy. Even though Atticus said that Mr. Radley is probably right, I highly doubt that the tree was ill and I think Atticus is right. But why would Mr. Radley do such thing? I think it is possible that he is trying to prevent our contact with Boo Radley. Is it because he is afraid Boo might harm us? But actually, Jem and I no longer think Boo is a bad guy. More than me, Jem wanted to be a friend of Boo, and he has made many tries, even though they all failed. He seemed very very disappointed, sad and shocked when the knot hole was filled up. He told me not to cry, but the one who cried was Jem. He stood in front of the tree for a long time and when he came back in, I could see that he had been crying. I realized that he is now old enough and mature that he cried without making sound, trying not to let others know that he has been crying. But to be honest, I don’t understand why he cried.