each trick leading for the next, as in most card games. Suit must be followed if possible, otherwise any card may be played. Any one that leads a "counting-card" (Ace, King, Queen, Knave, or Ten) scores one, whether he takes the trick or not; and he who takes a trick with a counting-card likewise scores one. He who takes the last trick scores an additional one (thus he scores two if he takes it with a counting-card). The player that takes the majority of tricks scores 10 for cards. If he take every trick (called winning a Capot), he scores 40. If each takes six tricks, neither scores for cards.

If a player score 30 in hand and play before his opponent scores anything, he wins Pique, and scores an extra 30. If he score 30 in hand alone before his opponent scores, he wins Repique, and scores an additional 60. Carte Blanche counts toward a Pique or Repique, but a Capot does not.

The game is 100. It is customary not to write down the score till the end of the hand. Before that time, each player, as he wins a point, adds it mentally to his previous score for that hand only, and announces the total aloud. But as the whole score nears 100, it is necessary to remember what it is, as the game ceases as soon as either player's score reaches that amount.

It must be remembered that although the dealer does not show and score his winning groups till the first card is led, they are looked upon as if they had been recorded in their proper place, in counting for Pique and Repique.

Thus, if

the elder hand scores 30 by his Sequences and Quatorzes, while his Point is "not good," he does not repique the dealer, whose score is regarded as being made in its proper place, though he is not obliged to show his winning suit till later.

In playing Piquet the chief things for the beginner to note are:

I. That the discarded cards and the ones shown by his opponent, together with those in his own hand, give him the means of making a good estimate of his enemy's strength.

2. That in discarding, all of a long suit should usually be kept to make Point.

3. That as the elder and leads and there is no trump, he can play a bolder game than his opponent, and need not keep small cards to guard a King or Queen, as his opponent should. An experienced player will often omit to call his best groups, preferring to lose, for the time being, rather than give his opponent valuable information. The learner is advised to play through carefully the following sample hand. A deals.

the player's hands and played over again.

2. If the elder hand have Carte Blanche, he must announce it at once, but need not show it till after the discard. If the dealer have it, he need neither declare nor show it till his opponent has discarded.

3. After a player has touched the stock he cannot alter his discard unless there has been a misdeal, or the other player wrongly announces the number of cards he takes, or fails to announce it.

4. If a player take more cards from the stock than he ought, he must play the hand through, but only his opponent may score. If he take less than his due, his opponent may reckon, as tricks won, all cards that cannot be played to.

5. The elder hand may look at any cards that he declines to take from the stock. The dealer may look at what he leaves, after the other has led a card; but if he does so, his opponent may also look.

6. A player may examine his own discard at any time.

6. If a player call a lower group than the highest he holds, he must abide by his call; but if he call a group he does not hold he must correct his mistake.

8. When the elder hand has led, or the younger played to it, neither can reckon anything that has been omitted.

9. A player may at any time require his opponent to show him all unplayed cards that have already been shown in reckoning, or may ask for any information about such cards.

10. A card once played cannot be taken up unless it has been led out of turn and the adversary has not played to it, or unless it is a revoke. In the latter case all cards played after the revoke are taken again into

12. Errors in adding or marking the score may be made right at any time during the game.

Imperial, a kind of Piquet, in which a trump is turned. The King is the highest card in the pack, and the Ace ranks between the Knave and the Ten. The face-cards, the Ace, and the Seven, are called Honors. There is no discarding. The top card of the stock is turned for trump, and this trump-card is treated as part of each player's hand in reckoning Point and groups of cards, Of the Piquet groups, the only ones that count in Imperial are quartsmajor and groups of four Honors, both of which are called Imperials.. Each player scores for whatever Imperials he has, but Point is scored only by the holder of the highest, as in Piquet. The elder hand first shows and scores his Imperials, and then calls his Point. Before replying to the call, the younger shows and scores his Imperials, and then says "Good" or Not good" to the call of Point. If good, the elder shows and scores it; if not, the younger waits till after the lead before doing so, as in Piquet. If either have Carte Blanche, only that and Imperials are scored; there is no Point, and the hand is not played. In playing, only Honors are scored for, and always by him who takes the trick containing them.

In scoring, an Honor turned up counts the dealer one; Carte Blanche scores 12; an Imperial scores 6; Point scores I. Each Honor won in play counts one. Each trick taken more than six counts one. When a player's score is six, no matter how gained, he is said to have scored an Imperial. When, in the course of a hand, either player's score amounts to that of one or more Imperials, his opponent's score

is reduced to the next lowest whole number of Imperials, called "taking down." Thus, suppose A has 4 points and B 3; if B make 3 more, all A's are taken away, and the score is Imperial to nothing in B's favor. Similarly, if A have 25 points and B 4, and B gain 2, the score is A, 4 Imperials; B, 1 Imperial. But if each player has one or more Imperials in hand, neither takes down his score. The number of Imperials that shall win the game is decided on beforehand. It is usually about six (36 points).

In playing, the most noticeable difference from Piquet is due to the trump. Trumps should be led if the hand is strong in them (that is, if there are four or more). If a player is forced to trump, he should do so with a low Honor, to score it. If a player think, from the score, that he can make an Imperial, and that his adversary cannot, he should try to force the latter to make necessary points before the Imperial is scored, that it may take them down. This is called "playing to the score."

RULES OF THE GAME.

1. If the dealer turn the wrong card, or more than one card, for trump, he must show his hand to his opponent, who, without looking at his own hand, may either require the right card to be turned, or call for a new deal.

2. If a player look at any of the stock cards, his adversary may call for a fresh deal, if he have not seen his own cards. If he have seen them, he may call on the offender once during the hand to lead some particular suit.

3. All Imperials must be shown before they can be scored. If a player do not show his Imperials at the proper time, as described above, he cannot score them.

In other essential points, the laws of Imperial are the same as those of ordinary Piquet.

History. Piquet is one of the oldest of the card games still played. It is generally supposed that it originated in France, where it was also called Cent (Hundred), though the same game under the name of Cientos was early known in Spain. It was called Sant (corrupted from Cent) in England till the middle of the seventeenth century, when the French name of Piquet was adopted. What is now called the Point in Piquet was known in old times in France as Ronfle, and some writers think that the game was developed from the old Italian Ronfa. Others think that it may have been derived from the Saxon game of Schwerter Karte (Sword Cards), which would account for the name, the French Pique (pike) as a suit mark being the same as the Spanish Espada (Sword). Some French writers say that Piquet was so named after a man who invented it; others say that it was named from the Pique, one of its features, but without explaining the latter; while still others suggest that the name means "Le jeu piquant" (The exciting game). The word is also written Picquet, and in English Picket.

The

PITCH. See ALL FOURs. PITCHETTE. See GROMMETS. PLANETS. Observations on. planets are described in C. C. T. in the article UNIVERSE. The only ones about which anything more can be seen with an opera glass than with the naked eye are Venus and Jupiter. Planets constantly change position in the heavens, so that no directions can be given for finding them to one who has not studied astronomy. The best way is to wait until one of them is morning or evening star, which can be seen by any almanac.

Venus. It can be seen through an opera-glass that Venus has phases like the moon, changing from a thin crescent to a full disk, and then back again to a crescent; but instead of being repeated every month, as with