Crows & Cards (30 page)

Large wooden barrel that holds sixty-three gallons.

hogtie

To make something helpless. It comes from the way a hog's legs are tied together to make it unable to move.

hogwash

Something that doesn't make sense. Why would you wash a hog?

hold-out

Card that's held out of a deck for cheating purposes. The cheater hides it up a sleeve or down a boot and sneaks it into play during a game.

homespun

Describes clothing that is spun or made at home. Most people on the frontier made their own clothes. They were usually made of linen and wool, then colored with natural dyes such as goldenrod for yellow, walnut bark and sumac for gray, and butternut hulls for brown.

Hudson Bay blanket

Heavy wool blanket of bright colors that the Hudson Bay Company, a fur-trading company, gave to Indians in exchange for furs.

hullabaloo

Loud commotion or excitement.

humble pie

Something submissive or humiliated. The phrase comes from eating umble pie. Umbles are the edible inner parts of an animal, particularly deer, which were thought of as food fit only for lower classes.

humbug

Someone who's not what he or she pretends to be.

hunker

To squat down.

huzzah
(huh-ZAH)

Cheer or hurrah that was originally a sailor's greeting when friends came aboard the ship.

I

iota
(eye-OH-tuh)

Smallest possible thing.

J

Jackson, Andy

Seventh president of the United States. Before becoming president, he won fame as an Army general, earning the nickname Old Hickory for his discipline and determination. He waged war against the Creek Indians in the southern United States and in the War of 1812 defeated the British at New Orleans. The victory over the British made him a national hero.

jenny wren

A jenny is a female bird. A wren is a small brown bird that flits quickly about.

Joan of Arc

National heroine of the French. In 1429 she led an army against English invaders at the French city of Orleans and defeated them. She was viewed as a messenger of God by the French, which was why they let her lead troops into battle. The English viewed her as an agent of the devil and eventually had her burned at the stake as a witch. In the 1920s, almost five hundred years after her death, she was recognized by the Catholic Church as a saint.

jug bitten

Drunk. A jug is a large clay bottle often used to store liquor.

just deserts

In this phrase,
just
refers to what is right or proper.
Deserts
refers to something that is deserved, such as a reward or punishment. Zeb's definitely thinking punishment.

K

kingdom come

Old way of saying
heaven,
from the Bible.

King Louis

Name of eighteen French kings. An illustrious bunch.

kit and caboodle

Collection of things or people.

L

la-di-da

Pretentious. Describes someone who pre- tends to be far more important or refined than he or she is.

Lafayette

French general who fought on the side of the colonists in the United States' Revolutionary War.

lark

Bird known for its singing.

legging

Covering for the leg made of leather or cloth.

levee

River landing where boats can dock.

lick

Tiny amount.

livery stable

Stable that cares for and rents out horses.

lodestone

Magnetic stone used in compasses that points north. For Ho-John, north is the direction of freedom.

looking glass

Mirror.

M

medicine bundle

A wrapping of skin or cloth that contains sacred objects such as an ancestor's skull, pipe, or robe. An Indian tribe might have many bundles, each owned by a keeper, who passes them on to a member of the next generation. A medicine bundle, similar to Christian religious shrines, bestows great honor and influence on the owner.

Methuselah
(Muh-THOO-zuh-luh)

Old guy from the Bible who is said to have lived 969 years and been the grandfather of Noah, who built the ark.

mettle

Courage or strength of spirit.

middling

Middle-size.

monkeyshine

Prank.

Mormons

Members of the Mormon religion. Dr. Buffalo Hilly is making fun of them because they were run out of the state of Missouri. Local citizens were afraid the Mormons were trying to take over towns such as Independence and Liberty. Not a high point of religious tolerance.

mortify

To subdue or do away with. Those pinworms that Buffalo Hilly's talking about don't stand a chance.

mountain fever

Any number of fevers that people come down with while in the mountains. Colorado tick fever and Rocky Mountain spotted fever are two examples.

mud clerk

Steamboat clerk who is the purser's assistant. The name may have come from the clerk having to work on shore, which is often muddy.

muff

To handle or deal with something poorly. Today you might hear it used when a baseball player drops a fly ball.

mumblety-peg
(MUM-bull-tee-peg)

Knife game. Players try to stick a knife into the ground from different locations or distances. Losers have to pull their knives out of the ground with their teeth.

mumps

Disease with symptoms such as a fever and major swelling of the cheeks. Today there is a vaccine that prevents it.

N

nabob
(NAY-bob)

Someone who is rich and important. The word comes from India, where it was the name for the governor of a province.

nag

A horse that is old or in bad health.

Nantucket

Island off the coast of Massachusetts. It was once an important center for boats that hunted whales.

Napoleon

Emperor of France from 1804 to 1815. Famous for nearly conquering all of Europe and for being short.

nary

None at all.

O

oilcloth

Cloth treated with oil or paint and used to cover tables or shelves.

P

palaver
(puh-LAHV-er)

To talk in a misleading and cajoling way. The speaker is usually trying to convince the listener of something. It comes from a Portuguese word that means "to chatter."

parcel

To divide something into parts.

passel

Large group.

passenger pigeon

Type of pigeon that once lived in North America. Huge numbers of the bird nested in the middle and eastern parts of the United States. In 1840, John J. Audubon, a famous bird painter, saw one flock of the birds that was a mile wide and took three hours to pass over him. He placed its number at more than a billion birds. The bird was hunted to extinction as thousands were shot to be sold in markets. The last passenger pigeons were seen in the wild in 1906.

Pawnee

Indian tribe of the Great Plains.

penny-ante

Small amount. Comes from a game of poker that costs a penny to join.

pernickety
(per-NICK-ih-tee)

Overly concerned about details. Sometimes spelled
persnickety.

pigs of lead

Rough castings of lead that have the shape of a short rod and are easy to transport.

pike

Short for
turnpike,
which is a road you pay to use.
Turnpike
comes from combining the words
turn
and
pike,
the latter of which was a heavy spear used in the Middle Ages by the infantry. A revolving (or turning) frame with pikes attached to it was once used to control access to places such as a road. Today's turnstiles are a less pointy version.

pilot (riverboat)

One who steers a riverboat. It was a highly skilled job back then, for the Mississippi river was filled with snags and shallows.

pine for

To long for something you can't have.

pluck

Courage or willingness to fight for what you believe in.

pockmarked

Describes skin that has pits or marks left by smallpox or acne.

poke

Small bag or sack.

poleaxe (verb)

To be cut down by a poleax, which was a medieval battle-axe and quite wicked.

porridge

Food made by boiling grain until soft.

potshot

Shot taken from hiding or at an easy target. It's a slightly derogatory term, for such a shot is viewed as taking an unfair or un-sportsman-like advantage of whatever is being shot at. As such, it is a shot fitting only for someone trying to fill a cooking pot—in other words, a shot for the pot.

powwow

Meeting or social gathering. American Indians often hold them to celebrate important victories or occasions. Zeb isn't using the word quite accurately when he describes two people conferring.

poxes

Diseases (smallpox or chickenpox) that cause blisters or pimples. Smallpox is rare today because of vaccinations. Chickenpox remains common, although a recent vaccine may change that.

Prussia

Kingdom that became part of Germany.

pullet

Young hen.