The children receive air rifles for Christmas. Their Uncle Jack brings them with him when he arrives on the train, but they are actually from Atticus, who wrote Jack to ask him to bring them to Maycomb.

Atticus apparently did not want to give them rifles, because he tells his brother that he "bowed to the inevitable" when he did so. He almost immediately has to tell them not to aim at things in the house, and he tells them not to take them to the Landing, perhaps, Scout guesses, correctly surmising that she is already thinking about shooting Francis.

In conversation with Francis, Scout also mentions that Jem got a chemistry set. She plans on writing letters to Dill in invisible ink using the set. The air rifles, and Atticus's reluctance to give them to the children, takes on additional meaning in the next chapter, when they are surprised to learn that he is a great shot with a rifle.

The matter of Scout and Jem's Christmas gifts comes up in a conversation with cousin Francis. Earlier, Scout and Jem had exchanged Christmas gifts with Francis. Scout never identifies what the gift from Francis had been. She had also noticed two packages when Uncle Jack got off the train, but he had refused to tell her who they were for.

Scout politely asks Francis what his Christmas gifts had been. He lists off all his gifts: "a pair of knee-pants, a red leather booksack, five shirts and an untied bow tie" (To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 9). Scout finds the gifts Francis received to be incredibly boring.

Eagerly, Scout tells Francis what she and Jem had received for Christmas. She tells him that she and Jem had received air rifles. She starts to tell Francis that Jem had received a real chemistry set as a Christmas gift, but he interrupts her. She tells him a little more about what Jem plans to do with his chemistry set.