To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter 5 Summary

Scout convinces Jem to back off on the Radley game.
Dill asks Scout to marry him, but then spends all his time hanging out with Jem, even though Scout tries to get his attention by beating him up, twice.
Neglected by the boys, Scout spends her time hanging out with Miss Maudie Atkinson.
Miss Maudie has a “tacit treaty” with the kids that she won’t bother them if they don’t bother her, so Scout’s spending time with her is a first.
A devoted gardener, Miss Maudie cultivates her yard with a passion.
Miss Maudie makes the best cakes in the neighborhood, and best of all, shares them with the three kids.
Scout asks Miss Maudie if she thinks Boo Radley is still alive, and Miss Maudie says she hasn’t seen his coffin carried out yet, so he probably is.
Flashback: Scout’s Uncle Jack has a history of flirting with Miss Maudie, though in a joking way.
Back to the present: Miss Maudie tells Scout more about the Radleys, including that old Mr. Radley (Boo’s father) was a “foot-washing Baptist” (5.27), which is apparently much more hardcore than just regular Baptists.
In fact, some of Mr. Radley’s fellow foot-washers have told Miss Maudie that she and her flowers are going to burn in hell, because any time spent not reading the Bible is time spent in sin, especially if it involves creating something pleasing to the senses. (No word on whether criticizing one’s neighbor’s counts as a sin with them.)
Miss Maudie says that the Radleys are “so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one” (5.44), which accounts for some of their strangeness.
Scout asks if Boo is crazy, and Miss Maudie says that if he wasn’t when this whole thing started, he probably is now after being locked up for so long.
Miss Maudie sends Scout home with some poundcake.
Scout finally breaks into Jem and Dill’s boys-only club, and finds out what they’ve been planning to do: try to put a note to Boo through one of the upper windows of the Radley Place using a fishing pole.
Dill’s going to be lookout with a bell to ring if anyone comes.
Scout and Dill get into an argument as to whether all the stories Dill has told about his father are true.
They put the plan into action, but Jem has some difficulty maneuvering the fishing pole, which is too short to reach the window.
Scout hears Dill ringing the bell and turns around, expecting to see a slavering Boo Radley; instead, she sees Atticus, who is not pleased.
Atticus tells the kids to stop bothering Boo, who has a perfect right to stay in his house if he wants to.
Atticus also tells them to stop playing their stupid game, and Jem says they weren’t making fun of Boo, inadvertently revealing to Atticus that they were in fact playing at being the Radleys.
Jem eventually realizes he’s been done in by the oldest lawyer’s trick in the book.

Chapter 6

Chapter 4