So Simon, having forgotten his teacher's dictum on the possession of human chattels, bought three slaves and with their aid established a homestead on the banks of the Alabama River some forty miles above Saint Stephens. Mindful of John Wesley's strictures on the use of many words in buying and selling, Simon made a pile practicing medicine, but in this pursuit he was unhappy lest he be tempted into doing what he knew was not for the glory of God, as the putting on of gold and costly apparel. In England, Simon was irritated by the persecution of those who called themselves Methodists at the hands of their more liberal brethren, and as Simon called himself a Methodist, he worked his way across the Atlantic to Philadelphia, thence to Jamaica, thence to Mobile, and up the Saint Stephens. All we had was Simon Finch, a fur-trapping apothecary from Cornwall whose piety was exceeded only by his stinginess. Being Southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of the family that we had no recorded ancestors on either side of the Battle of Hastings. If General Jackson hadn't run the Creeks up the creek, Simon Finch would never have paddled up the Alabama, and where would we be if he hadn't? We were far too old to settle an argument with a fist-fight, so we consulted Atticus. I said if he wanted to take a broad view of the thing, it really began with Andrew Jackson. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. He couldn't have cared less, so long as he could pass and punt. His left arm was somewhat shorter than his right when he stood or walked, the back of his hand was at right angles to his body, his thumb parallel to his thigh. When it healed, and Jem's fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury. Charles Lamb PART ONE 1 When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. jane him the paper and grandmother to the door. peter up early before his parents awake, his pocket money and off to meet jane at the shop. the meeting which was said to have lasted several hours onĥ4.
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