The sixth grade seemed to please him from the beginning: he went through a brief Egyptian Period that baffled me – he tried to walk flat a great deal, sticking one arm in front of him and one in back of him, putting one foot behind the other. He declared Egyptians walked that way; I said if they did I didn’t see how they got anything done, but Jem said they accomplished more than the Americans ever did, they invented toilet paper and perpetual embalming, and asked where would we be today if they hadn’t? Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.
– Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 7. Scout on her brother Jem and both of them growing up. The “delete the adjectives” advice from Atticus to Scout refers to Jem’s exaggerations and fantastical ideas.