Dill tells Rachel and Atticus that Jem lost his pants when they were playing strip poker.
When Dill comes to Maycomb, he is obsessed with Boo Radley. Dill understands what it is like to be lonely and misunderstood, and he believes Boo is not really a monster. If the children can just get him to come out, they can be friends with him. Dill, Scout, and Jem engage in a campaign to make contact with Boo. While sneaking on the Radley porch, Jem accidentally loses his pants. They get snagged and he takes them off because he doesn't want to be in the range of Nathan Radley's gun.
Dill comes up with a story to tell the adults to explain why Jem shows up with no pants.
Dill’s hand sought the back of his head. He brought it forward and across his forehead. “We were playin‘ strip poker up yonder by the fishpool,” he said.
Jem and I relaxed. The neighbors seemed satisfied: they all stiffened. But what was strip poker? (Chapter 6)
When Miss Rachel becomes upset at the thought that the children are gambling, Jem explains they were playing with matches and not cards, which satisfies the adults.
“Just a minute, Miss Rachel,” he said. “I’ve never heard of ‘em doing that before. Were you all playing cards?”
Jem fielded Dill’s fly with his eyes shut: “No sir, just with matches.”
I admired my brother. Matches were dangerous, but cards were fatal (Chapter 6).
Atticus tells Jem to go get his pants, and tries to explain to Rachel that Dill and the other children do not mean anything by it. They clearly have no idea what strip poker is, and were just playing around and making things up. He tells her it isn’t serious.
For Jem, it is serious. He can’t just go get his pants, because he left them by the Radleys' house. He knows he will be in trouble if he tells Atticus he was there. He also doesn’t want to tell Atticus he was there because that would be admitting that he was still harassing Boo Radley. He wants Atticus to trust and believe in him, so that is out of the question.
Jem decides to sneak back at night and get his pants. He finds them folded on the fence, sewed up inexpertly. Jem finds this a little disturbing because he is unsure who did that for him. Scout does not want Jem to go because she does not realize it is more important for him to risk angering Nathan Radley by going to get the pants than to let Atticus find out he let him down.
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