'Come on and try, then!'

Then there was silence; both the little people eyed each other defiantly,
yet a little doubtfully, as if measuring one another's strength, and
their faces grew eager at the coming contest.

'Boys always ought to give way to girls, always,' Nancy said, using her
strongest plea; 'you're not a proper boy at all.'

'You're not a proper girl. You're wearing a boy's hat and a boy's
jacket.'

'I'm a sailor's daughter, and everybody can see I am. You say you're a
soldier's son, why don't you dress like one?'

Teddy felt he was getting the worst of it. He fingered his button
proudly.

'I'm wearing something that has been in the thick of a bloody battle;
that's more than you can do. Sailors don't know much of fighting.'

'They know just as much as soldiers, and as to your old button, I b'lieve
you just picked up the old brass thing from the gutter!'

'If you weren't a girl, I'd fight you!' sputtered Teddy now, with
rising wrath.

'Pooh! I expect I could lick you; I don't b'lieve you have half as big a
muscle as I have on my arm.'