Atticus, do you defend ****?

Don't say '****,' Scout.

I didn't say it...Cecil Jacobs did. That's why I had to fight him.

Scout, I don't want you fightin'!

I had to, Atticus, he...

I don't care what the reasons are. I forbid you to fight. There are some things that you're not old enough to understand just yet. There's been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn't do much about defending this man.

If you shouldn't be defending him, then why are you doing it?

For a number of reasons. The main one is that if I didn't, I couldn't hold my head up in town. I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do somethin' again. You're gonna hear some ugly talk about this in school. But I want you to promise me one thing...that you won't get into fights over it, no matter what they say to you.