Brace up

Ed wired the house, dug a basement with pick and shovel, braced it up, bricked it, and installed a furnace and a coal chute […]

The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.