Picket

“ We had passed a very quiet week there, when one night the Spaniards passed our picket secretly in the darkness, fired a volley into the town, and then immediately retreated. Our picket only just managed to get through safely into the town, leaving one of our men asleep in the picket-house, and he must certainly have met his death if he had been caught there singly; but the tallow-chandler, though himself a Spaniard, concealed him under a quantity of dry hides while the enemy were scouring the place in search of stragglers, and so saved his life. ”

“ An observer said that, when the relay of pickets, leaving at the end of the day, stepped down from the bricks at the word of command, it was like a line of statues stepping from their pedestals.
But others—and sometimes strangers—sought to mitigate for the pickets the rigors of the freezing weather. One woman, coming regularly every day in her car, brought thermos bottles filled with hot coffee. On one occasion, a young girl—a passing volunteer—came on picket duty in a coat too light and shoes too low. ”

“ At every place where a string has been tied, a picket is stuck in the ground; then the cane is removed to another place, and so on till all the estate is marked out by pickets. After the picketing, a hole is made with the spade at every mark; it should be a good foot broad and deep, and the earth inside should be made very fine and clear. The earth is now ready to receive the coffee plant, and the time has only to be waited for when the first rains fully begin. ”

“ A picket is a group consisting of two or more squads, ordinarily not exceeding half a company, posted in the line of outguards to cover a given sector. It furnishes patrols and one or more sentinels, double sentinels, sentry, squads, or cossack posts for observation.
Pickets are placed at the more important points in the line of outguards, such as road forks. The strength of each depends upon the number of small groups required to observe properly its sector. ”

“ Each dog is led out to separate picket, always in the ground for that purpose, and there tied; so that he cannot quarrel with his neighbours. A parcel of old earthen vessels, every where abounding, are collected for the purpose of receiving each dog’s mess: the meat and rice are first allotted among them, according to bulk, and the gravy afterwards added. ”

“ I had a great partiality for those of my own color, so calling out several darkies I spread before them some corn cake, and gave them a little whiskey for dessert. While we were thus engaged the Yankee Minnie balls were whistling round our heads, for the picket lines of the contending parties were not half a mile distant from each other. The rebel pickets do not remain together in groups of three or four as our men do, but are strung along, one in each place, from three to four rods apart. I proposed to remain a while with the pickets, and the darkies returned to camp without me. ”

“ A picket was also stationed at the narrow isthmus connecting with the main-land.
These were not all the difficulties in their way. Supposing them able to pass the sentinels in the passage and at the outer door of their quarters, they must then cross the open space and ascend the wall under the eye of the guards posted on the parapet. Admitting the summit of the rampart gained, the exterior wall was defended with strong pickets driven obliquely into the earthen wall of the fort. From this point was a sheer descent of twenty feet to the bottom of the ditch. ”

“ It is more than aggravating to find upon arising in the morning that your horse has disappeared and one always feels that time consumed in searching for a roving horse is time worse than wasted. Of course this tendency of an animal can be forestalled by picketing him, but a picketed horse unless forage be particularly good will not do well, for it rarely happens in these days of sheep-ravaged ranges that an animal can find sufficient food to meet his requirements within the limited length of a picket rope. ”

“ Only Longstreet demurred and protested against the charge. When Pickett asked him for the order to advance he turned away his head sorrowfully and would not speak. Then Pickett, that great leader of men, who was one half daring and one half magnetism and all hero, said proudly: “I shall go forward, sir.” And turned to his lovers. ”

“ Come, that's a good child; shake hands. May I kiss her, Pickett? No—damn it, I shan't ask you. There, there! Here is a basket of trash I had the orderly rake together. I don't know what it all is, but I told the man to do the best he could. Here, Mr. George junior—with your bright eyes and your [Pg 196] won't-cry mouth—here is a green chip for a pair of red shoes."
General Ingalls put into our baby's hands his first greenback, and it was the only money we had, too—every cent. Baby and I said good-bye, and he and my Soldier went out on deck. While I was peeping into the basket "Mr. ”

“ The smallest gabions or baskets are formed of pickets, 1 inch in thickness, and 1 foot long: they are 12 inches in diameter at top, and 10 at bottom. The small gabions have 7 or 8 pickets, the large ones 9 or 10.
To make them—The pickets are first to be fixed in the ground in a circle, the size or the bottom of the intended gabion; then a few twigs are to be wove through the upper ends, to keep them from flying out; afterwards the work must be begun at the bottom and continued upwards; and the whole being well driven down with a mallet, the edges must be secured by twigs, wattled up and down. ”

“ General Pickett, finding the battle broken, while the enemy was still reinforcing, called the troops off. ”

“ Pickett’s lines being nearer, the impact was heaviest upon them. ”

“ Pickles is pickles for the most part, but you’ll always get preferred pickles when you deal with us. Even your wife, excellent cook as she no doubt is, will be unable to make better pickles than ours. And to serve with those tasty party sandwiches, which mean so much to an experienced hostess, who would want to use any pickle except the perfect pickles that are the fame of Poppy’s Pickle Parlor? ”

“ Onions, cauliflower, green peppers, tomatoes, and beans, as well as cucumbers, are used for making mixed pickles. All vegetables should first be cured in brine.
For making mixed pickles, very small vegetables are much to be preferred. If larger ones must be used, first cut them into pieces of a desirable and uniform shape and size. Place in the bottom of each wide-mouth bottle or jar a little mixed spice. In filling the bottle arrange the various kinds of pickles in as neat and orderly a manner as possible. ”

“ In our search for the pickle genius we hadn’t dreamed for the tail end of a second that anyone short of a first-class cook had made the poochy pickles. And we had sort of pictured in our minds a spotless kitchen, puddled with sunshine, with a line-up of shiny aluminum kettles on the shelves, clever little ruffled doo-dads at the windows, a gurgling canary, and, to finish off, an old rag rug of many colors in the middle of the kitchen floor. ”

“ To pickle Nasturtium-Buds:—Gather your little knobs quickly after your blossoms are off; put them in cold water and salt for three days, shifting them once a day; then make a pickle (but do not boil it at all) of some white-wine, some white-wine vinegar, eschalot, horse-radish, pepper, salt, cloves, and mace whole, and nutmeg quartered; then put in your seeds and stop them close; they are to be eaten as capers.
To keep Quinces in Pickle:—Cut five or six quinces all to pieces, and put them in an earthen pot or pan, with a gallon of water and two pounds of honey ”

“ Probably they are fairly good pickles, as pickles go. Because I am in the pickle business myself is no reason why I should run down anybody else’s pickles. Yet, on the other hand, I feel that I have a right to uphold the superior quality of my own pickles. And it is of such pickles that I am going to make good your loss. Not store pickles, Mrs. Clayton, as we usually accept the term, but home-made pickles, of which the more you eat the more you want; pickles that you never tire of; pickles with the lasting, lingering taste; pickles with a skin you love to touch ”

“ Seeing that it was useless to argue with him further, I sort of resigned myself to my fate as his pickle partner.
“I have a hunch,” says I, “that it’s going to be a whole lot worse than that. A Pickle Parlor! We’ll be the laugh of the town.” ”

“ PICKLES. The free or frequent use of pickles is by no means to be recommended, where any regard is paid to health. In general they are the mere vehicles for taking a certain portion of vinegar and spice, and in the crisp state in which they are most admired are often indigestible, and of course pernicious. The pickle made to preserve cucumbers and mangoes, is generally so strongly impregnated with garlic, mustard, and spice, that the original flavour of the vegetable, is quite overpowered, and the vegetable itself becomes the mere absorbent of these foreign ingredients. ”

“ Try one of those pickles in the jar there, won’t you. I always like to have a boy enjoy himself when he comes to see me,” said the grocery man, winking to a man who was filling an old fashioned tin box with tobacco out of the pail, who winked back as much as to say, “if that boy eats a pickle on top of them mumps we will have a circus, sure.”
“You can’t play no pickle on me, not when I have the mumps. Ma passed the pickles to me this morning, and I took one mouthful, and like to had the lockjaw. ”

“ The pickles, in a uniform of rich brown double-breasted buttoned coat, and yellow or sombre drab continuations, announced their portly forms, in printed capitals, as Walnut, Gherkin, Onion, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Mixed, and other members of that noble family. The jams, as being of a less masculine temperament, and as wearing curlpapers, announced themselves in feminine caligraphy, like a soft whisper, to be Raspberry, Gooseberry, Apricot, Plum, Damson, Apple, and Peach. ”

“ When perfectly cold remove the fish into fresh jars, smooth them with a knife, and cover them with clarified butter.
Pickling
Pickling.—The chief agent in pickling is hot vinegar, and the best way to prepare it is as follows:—Bruise 1⁄4 lb. each of black pepper, ginger, cloves, pimento, and mace, with some garlic, horse-radish, capsicums, and shallots, in 1 qt. of the strongest and best vinegar in a stoneware jar; cork tightly, cover with a bladder soaked in the pickle, and place on a trivet near the fire for 3 days, shaking it up 3 or 4 times a day. ”

“ For your pickle take a gallon or more, according to your quantity of asparagus, of white wine vinegar, and one ounce of bay-salt, boil it, and put the asparagus in your jar; to a gallon of pickle put two nutmegs, a quarter of an ounce of mace, the same of whole white pepper, and pour the pickle hot over them; cover them with a linen cloth, doubled three or four times, let them stand a week, and boil the pickle; after standing a week longer, boil the pickle again, and pour it on hot, as before; when they are cold, cover them close with a bladder and leather. ”

“ No, she told me, after tasting the pickles, they weren’t out of her kitchen. Nor could she help me. But she’d like to buy some of the pickles, she said, if it turned out that there were more of the same kind for sale. I went to three women in turn. No success at all. [21] But here’s an important point, Jerry: Every woman who sampled the pickles wanted to buy some. So you can see the big money that’s waiting for us if we can find out who this unknown pickle genius is and win her over to our scheme.”
There’s nothing I like better than mystery stuff. ”

“ If skins are to be kept some time they should, after a preliminary pickling, be put in new, fresh pickle and it should be occasionally tested with a salinometer and kept up to the original strength. Dirty and greasy pickle should be thrown away, but if clean and of low strength it can be brought up by adding new pickle of extra strength. It will do no hurt if more salt, even a saturated solution, is made of either of the foregoing. ”

“ Pickles consist of vegetables and fruits steeped in vinegar previously boiled with spices, to which is frequently added salt and sugar, in quantities varied according to individual taste. The chief pickles are cabbage, cauliflower, chillies, gherkins, onions, and walnuts. Any or all of these, except cabbage, may be mixed; one variety of mixed pickles, highly seasoned with mustard, is well known, and often usefully employed as a dressing for devilled bones, re-heating pork, etc. Indian pickles form a class by themselves ”

“ They want better pickles than they can buy. So how easy for us to build up our new business if we get the right kind of pickles to sell!”
I gave him a sad look.
“Poppy,” I sighed, “you’re too much for me.”
“What do you mean?”
“As long as you’re a boy,” I advised, as a further effort to pull him down to earth, “why don’t you be a boy? This Peanut Parlor stuff is out of your line, kid.”
“I didn’t say anything about a Peanut Parlor.”
“Well, a Pickle Parlor is just as crazy. You can’t make it work. For pickles are groceries. And the place to buy them is in a grocery store.” ”

“ Last Thursday when I was in Rockford, my cousin, who works in a wholesale grocery store, took me down to the office to meet the boss. Our talk was mostly about cucumber pickles. Mr. Wiggins was very much interested in our new pickle business. I spread a lot of gab, I guess. And what do you know if I didn’t talk him into giving me an order for two thirty-gallon barrels! Being Henny’s cousin helped, I suppose. Anyway, whether it was that or just my line of gab, I got the order. Boy, did I ever feel big! ”