At the beginning of Chapter 7, Scout puts Atticus' advice to practice; what does she do? And why?

At the beginning of Chapter Seven, Scout notes a change in Jem's mood. Thus, instead of barreling right in like she wanted to, she backed off and tried to understand how it would have felt to sneak into the Radley's yard in the wee hours of the morning.... alone.

Jem stayed moody and silent for a week. As Atticus had once advised me to do, I tried to climb into Jem’s skin and walk around in it: if I had gone alone to the Radley Place at two in the morning, my funeral would have been held the next afternoon. So I left Jem alone and tried not to bother him.