Early September comes, and goes back to , Mississippi. At first Scout is sad, but she then is excited about starting school. On the first day, Jem walks her to school, probably because he was paid by , according to Scout. Jem tells her that she is not to talk to him at school.

The reader learns that , a brand new teacher, gets upset with Scout because she is able to already. tells her to tell , her father, to stop teaching her. She says to Scout, “You tell him I’ll take over from here and try to undo the damage.” The teacher also tells Scout that she shouldn’t know how to ; she won’t learn that until the 3rd grade. Scout tells the reader that she learned to write from . Scout and her classmates view the teacher as an outsider because she is from a northern part of that did not fight with the South during the Civil War.

When lunchtime came, the teacher noticed that Cunningham had no lunch. then offers the student a quarter. Cunningham refuses to take it. Scout tries to tell the teacher why he won’t take it. She says that he is a Cunningham, and they don’t borrow money from anyone.

The reader then learns that Mr. Cunningham pays with food, not money. That is how poor the Cunningham family is. Cunningham is a farmer and was hit pretty hard by the stock market crash. He could give up his land and get another job, but if he loses his land, he will lose the right to .

After Scout tells her about the Cunninghams, takes a and pats Scout about six times. Scout then is made to stand in the . As Scout exits the classroom, she notices that sank down into her chair and buried her in her hands.