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Why does Scout not bother Jem when he goes "behind the car-house" in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

In the opening chapter of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout the narrator explains a bit about her family and family history. One thing she explains is that their father, Atticus, married later in life a woman who was 15 years younger than him. Jem was born in their first year of marriage, and Scout was born 4 years later. Scout further explains that 2 years after Scout's birth, their mother "died from a sudden heart attack," and that heart illness "ran in [their mother's] family."


The above would mean that Jem was 6 when they lost their mother, whereas Scout was only 2 years old. Since Scout was so young, she really doesn't remember their mother at all, whereas Jem remembers her very well and often misses her. Though the two children never talk about their mother, Scout speculates Jem misses her due to his behavior sometimes, as we see in the following passage:



I did not miss her, but I think Jem did. He remembered her clearly, and sometimes in the middle of a game he would sigh at length, then go off and play by himself behind the car-house. (Ch. 1)



While we don't exactly know why Jem gets gloomy thinking about their mother in the middle of games, we can speculate that something happens to trigger his memories. We might speculate that, since their games involve acting out the stories of children's books they know, something in the plot of one of their books reminds him of her. Perhaps he remembers her reading to him. Or, perhaps Scout behaves in a way that reminds him of her. Regardless of being uncertain of exactly what triggers Jem's gloomy memories of his mother, we do know based on Scout's narrative that the reason why he goes off by himself behind the car-house is because he feels sad since he misses their mother. Hence, one reason why Scout does not bother Jem when he is by himself behind the car-house is because she know he is feeling sad. In addition, based on snappish behavior he exhibits towards Scout all throughout the book, we can speculate that Scout is aware he will snap at her if she tries to bother him when he is in his sad state of missing their mother.

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