Holding Scout's hand, Miss Maudie effectively restrained her from giving a rude response to Miss Stephanie, and instead gave a polite and ladylike response. This connects to the fact that Miss Maudie is maternal towards the motherless scout, as she does not allow anyone to make fun of her "daughter" and tries hard to teach her to grow up to be an asset to Maycombe. Miss Maudie's benevolence extended to Jem and Dill, perhaps because they too are essentially motherless, for Jem had died when he was young and Dill had remarried and so spent every summer staying with his aunt, Miss Rachel. This is evident, as when Miss Maudie baked, she baked "one big and three small", which actually brought the children closer to her and made them feel wanted, and privileged to think that someone had actually bothered to bake them like separate cakes. Everything is fine. Lee successfully uses this to show that Miss Maudie is genuinely kind and cares for those around her, especially