All through September Wednesdays and into October, Mrs. Baker tasks Holling with washing chalkboards, pounding erasers, and straightening the room while his classmates leave for either Temple Beth-El (the Jewish temple) or Saint Adelbert’s (the Catholic church). He even cleans the Coat Room but doesn’t touch Doug Swieteck’s stash of collected items for his next teacher prank. Holling doesn’t complain for the sake of his father’s architect business, as Baker Sporting Emporium has yet to make its choice between Hoodhood and Associates and a competing firm, Kowalski and Associates.

One Wednesday, before the class leaves, Mrs. Baker asks Holling to retrieve trays of freshly baked cream puffs from the cafeteria. They are for the Wives of Vietnam Soldiers meeting at the church later in the day. The cream puffs send the class into a dither when they get back from recess, and as they leave for their church classes, they all threaten Holling: “If she gives you a cream puff after we leave, I’m going to kill you,” Danny Hupfer says (31).

This week, Holling’s assignment is to pound erasers from all the other teachers’ classrooms, and Mrs. Baker promises him a cream puff if he finishes in time.