Sometimes the floggings amounted to little, but sometimes they were serious, and when those fell upon the smaller boys, the girls would weep and the bigger boys would grind their teeth and swear.
The situation became so acute that Murdie Cameron and the big boys decided that they would quit the school.

They were afraid the temptation to throw the master out would some day be more than they could bear, and for men who had played their part, not without credit, in the Scotch River fights, to carry out the master would have been an exploit hardly worthy of them.

So, in dignified contempt of the master and his rules, they left the school after the third day.
Their absence did not help matters much; indeed, the master appeared to be relieved, and proceeded to tame the school into submission.

It was little Jimmie Cameron who precipitated the crisis.

Jimmie's nose, upon which he relied when struggling with his snickers, had an unpleasant trick of failing him at critical moments, and of letting out explosive snorts of the most disturbing kind.