course.)

"Buck up, Dammy! Ginger for pluck! Never say croak!"

A very large and very informal committee took charge of the business
of the fight, and what was alluded to as "a friendly boxing contest
between Bully Harberth of the Fifth and de Warrenne--late Funky--" was
arranged for the following Saturday afternoon. On being asked by a
delegate of the said large and informal committee as to whether he
would be trained by then or whether he would prefer a more distant
date, Dam replied that he would be glad to fight Harberth that very
moment--and thus gained the reputation of a fierce and determined
fellow (though erstwhile "funky"--the queer creature).

Those who had been loudest in dubbing him Funky Warrenne were quickest
in finding explanations of his curious conduct and explained it well
away.

It was at this time that Dam's heart went wholly and finally out to
Ormonde Delorme who roundly stated that his father, a bemedalled
heroic Colonel of Gurkhas, was "in a blind perishing funk" during a
thunderstorm and always sought shelter in the wine cellar when one was
in progress in his vicinity.

Darn presented Delorme with his knife and a tiger's tooth forthwith.
Saturday came and Dam almost regretted its advent, for, though a child
in years, he was sufficiently old, weary, and cynical in spirit to
know that all life's fruit contains dust and ashes, that the joys of
anticipation exceed those of realization, and that with possession
dies desire.