Green ginger pickled in sugar was highly prized during the middle ages. There are a number of beverages which contain ginger. Gingerade is water charged with carbonic acid gas and flavored with ginger, being almost identical with ginger-pop. Ginger-beer is prepared by fermenting cream-of-tartar, ginger, and sugar with yeast and water. Ginger-ale is supposed to be identical with ginger-beer. These ginger drinks are all refreshing, but I believe my readers will agree that there is usually too much ginger present; the hot, burning sensation in the mouth is not very pleasant. It may be that the trouble lies in taking too much of the drink at a time. In my estimation ginger as used by the baker is most appreciated and here again I believe my readers will agree with me. Who has not heard of ginger-bread? This sweet cake flavored with ginger is not by any means of recent origin. The great English bard Chaucer sang its praises long ago (1328-1400): "They fette him first the sweete wyn, And mede eek in a maselyn, And roial spicerye Of _ginge breed_ that was full fyn." Shakespeare also must have valued this bread very highly, for in the play, "Love's Labor Lost," he says: "An I had but one penny in the world thou shouldst have it to buy _ginger-bread_." Ginger-bread is often made into fanciful shapes. Cats, dogs, horses, elephants and men are cut out of the rolled dough and then baked. Many of my readers are perhaps familiar with some of the beautiful playtime songs of Alice Riley and Jessie Gaynor. The following are the words of one of these songs, entitled, "The Ginger-bread Man." It describes the ginger-bread man very beautifully in the first verse. His awful fate, evidently in the hands of a small cannibal, is very graphically described in the second verse. I regret being wholly unable to supply the music. Here are the words by Alice Riley: "Oh the ginger-bread man, the ginger-bread man, The round little, brown little ginger-bread man, He has sugary eyes and a sugary nose, And he's sweet from his crown to his sugary toes, Is this dear little, queer little ginger-bread man, This dear little ginger-bread man. "Oh the ginger-bread man, the ginger-bread man, The poor little, sad little ginger-bread man, For he lost his poor arms, and he lost both his feet, And he lost his poor head, it was so good to eat, And his vest buttons tasted uncommonly sweet, Ah, poor little ginger-bread man." Gingersnaps are very much liked by many. I used to demolish them by the pound until someone whispered in my ear that "bad eggs were used in making them." Since then my appetite for gingersnaps has lessened. I hope what that man said is not true. Gingernut is another cake containing ginger and sweetened with molasses.