Within the confines of her ham costume, Scout was still
able to identify a fourth person struggling in the dark with Jem and their attacker. She
certainly had no clue who it could have been, at first thinking it was Jem battling the
man; and then assuming it was Atticus who had come to help. But when Sheriff Tate asked
Scout who it was, she suddenly pointed to a man standing in the corner with his back
against the wall. After surveying him from top to bottom, with his white hands, sickly
complexion, and hollow cheeks, she immediately knew it could only have been her
never-before-seen neighbor, Boo.
Scout and Jem had long
since gotten over their fear of Boo. They knew he had given them the gifts in the
knothole, and the children knew they were acts of kindness; likewise, Jem's mended pants
and the blanket with which Boo covered Scout's shoulders on the night of Miss Maudie's
fire had shown that he meant no harm. Now, Scout realized that it was Boo who had come
to their rescue, and her dream of seeing him in person had come true in a most
miraculous way.
Scout politely led "Mr. Arthur" to a
rocking chair in the shadows of the porch, and, "feeling slightly unreal," she sat down
beside him. After Sheriff Tate left, she invited him to say goodbye to Jem, taking his
hand and leading him to the bed. She suggested that Boo "pet him," and Mr. Arthur
touched the boy's head. Then, like the lady that Scout was slowly becoming, she "slipped
my hand into the crook of his arm," and escorted Arthur back to his
home.
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