It did not help the situation that the new master was unaware of this state of mind.

He was buoyed up by the sentiments of enthusiastic admiration and approval that he carried with him in the testimonials from his last board of trustees in town, with which sentiments he fully agreed, and hence he greeted the pupils of the little backwoods school with an airy condescension that reduced the school to a condition of speechless and indignant astonishment.

The school was prepared to tolerate the man who should presume to succeed their former master, if sufficiently humble, but certainly not to accept airy condescension from him.
"Does he think we're babies ?" asked Don, indignantly.
"And did you see him trying to chop at recess ?" (REE'cis, Hughie called it.) "He couldn't hit twice in the same place." "And he asked me if that beech there was a maple," said Bob Fraser, in deep disgust.
"Oh, shut up your gab!" said Ranald, suddenly.

"Give the man a chance, anyway." "Will YOU bring an excuse when you're absent, Ranald ?" asked Hughie.
"And where would I be getting it ?" asked Ranald, grimly, and all the boys realized the absurdity of expecting a written excuse for Ranald's absence from his father.

Macdonald Dubh was not a man to be bothered with such trifles.
"You might get it from your Aunt Kirsty, Ranald," said Don, slyly.