This is just another example of Dill's great storytelling
in To Kill a Mockingbird, and it's difficult to tell when he is
telling the truth or not. At the beginning of Chapter 12, Scout receives a letter from
Dill explaining that he will not be coming to Maycomb that summer. He "had a new
father"--whether the man had actually married Dill's mom remains unknown--and the two
were planning to build a boat together. The fact that Dill claimed that his new dad was
also a lawyer--"like Atticus, only much younger"--should have made Scout question the
truth of his letter. Dill also told Scout that he would eventually return to marry her,
and Scout was too much in puppy love for her to see that all was not right with
Dill.
It wasn't long before Dill showed up in Maycomb: He
had run away from home. This time the story was different: His new father, who he now
hated, had chained him in the basement, where he had been forced to live on raw field
peas provided by a sympathetic farmer. According to Dill, he had broken free from the
chains, become a camel washer in a small animal show, and had taken a train and then
hitchhiked his way to Maycomb. Dill was extremely dirty, so Jem and Scout must have
assumed that at least the latter part of his story was
true.
It is clear that Dill was an imaginative boy capable
of telling the biggest whoppers imaginable. But he is also a lonely boy whose parents
have no time for him. He is happiest when he is in Maycomb, with his two friends who
accept him for his warm personality and mischievous attitude toward
life.
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