Both Fern and Calum are leaders of their respective groups and have the same responsibilities, but while both aren't afraid to let insults fly, Fern is consistently depicted as the attacker while Calum is both the victim and the defender of the clan's honor. Once again, perspective plays a significant role in the characterization of Calum and the other key players in the story. One of the main ideas presented in No Great Mischief is that outside of a clan, one's value diminishes rapidly. The narrative never takes readers outside of the Calum Ruadh clan, so Calum is never shown through the eyes of outsiders. In this regard, Alexander portrayed Calum as a character to be pitied rather than judged because his most terrible and violent act is committed in self-defense and is the result of a misunderstanding. Fern accuses the Macdonalds of theft and Calum is completely innocent of this; the two men have both been deceived by the Californian Alexander, an outsider who does not understand their values. In reality, Calum and Fern have much more in common than Calum and his American cousin, but Calum trusts deeply in the common threads of fate that bind the two. Like any good leader, Calum “takes care of his own blood” before taking care of “his” blood, and this ultimately leads to his tragic