Summary

In Chapter 1, narrator begins by introducing the Herdman kids as the worst in the world. She explains how they lied, stole, swore, smoked cigars, fought with little kids and even burned down Fred Shoemaker's old tool house. The narrator believed it to be an accident. Two fire engines and two police cars were sent to the scene, along with five dozen doughnuts from the diner in town. None of the workers got any of the doughnuts because the Herdmans grabbed them all, even stuffing what they could not eat into their shirts. A fireman asked Claude Herdman if the fire started because the kids were smoking cigars in the tool house. He said they were not smoking, but they were playing with a "Young Einstein" chemistry set (which Leroy had stolen from the hardware store). They had mixed all the powders together, poured lighter...