In chapter 6, the children raid the Radley yard during the nighttime in an attempt to get a look at their reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley. Unfortunately, the children are not able to see Boo through the window because his brother comes outside with a shotgun and begins firing shells into the air. As the children flee the yard, Jem gets his pants caught underneath the Radley fence and is forced to take them off in order to escape. Later that night, Jem decides to return to the Radley yard retrieve his pants.
In chapter 7, Scout mentions that Jem stayed moody for an entire week after returning late from the Radley yard with his pants. On their walk home from school one afternoon, Jem tells Scout a secret and discloses what happened on the night he returned to the Radley yard. Jem tells Scout that he found his pants hemmed and neatly folded over the fence like someone was expecting him to return that night. Jem does not say it aloud, but he is beginning to think that Boo Radley is no a malevolent phantom and is actually a kind, shy individual.
Jem tells Scout that his pants were folded, mended and left for him when he went back to reclaim them, after they were lost in his attempt to escape the Radley property.
When Scout, Jem, and Dill go to look at the Radley house, they're hoping to get a glimpse of Boo Radley. Unfortunately, their presence is detected by Nathan Radley. He thinks the children are a black person and fires into the air to scare them away. They run, but Jem's pants catch on the barbed wire fence. He abandons them.
He goes back to get them that night so that Atticus doesn't catch him in a lie.
For the next week, he doesn't tell Scout anything. She says he's moody and silent. Then he breaks his silence and tells her that when he went back for the pants, they were mended, folded, and laid across the fence. Jem says it was like someone was expecting him to come back for them.
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