To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter 16

When they returned home, Scout started crying when she went to bed because the full weight of what happened that night hit her and she was scared. Jem put her in bed with him and told her that it all might be over by the next day because that's when the trial was. The following morning Atticus ordered the children to stay at home and then he left for court. Scout and Jem watched from the front yard as a parade of people walked past their house all dressed up and on their way to town to watch the trial. After lunch Jem, Scout, and Dill sneaked into town and made their way into the courthouse with the rest of the crowd. While there, Scout overheard some old men talking about Atticus and one of them mentioned that the case had been assigned to him. She thought it strange that her father hadn't mentioned that before because it would have come in handy when she and Jem were defending him and themselves. The other man complained that the problem wasn't that Atticus was assigned to defend Tom Robinson, but that he planned to really defend Tom.

Inside the courthouse, the room was packed, so Reverend Sykes took the children upstairs with him and they watched the trial from the colored section of the court.