What exactly do くれ and と mean in this sentence


I am reading the novel 『狐霊の檻』 by 廣嶋玲子. In the beginning the narrator describes
a feast she had once taken part in. She says

> 好きなだけ飲んでくれと、庭に置かれた酒の大樽【おおだる】。

I think that the sentence means something like

> _In the garden there was a cask of sake from which we drank whenever we
> wanted._

But I do not understand the grammatical functions of くれ and と.




～てくれ is an imperative form that's stronger than ～てください or ～て, but a little
weaker than the plain imperative (飲め). と here is the same quotative と as in
～という. You can think of this sentence as saying something like

> 好きなだけ飲んでくれ **と言っているかのように** 、庭に置かれた酒の大樽

> There was a cask of spirits in the garden, _as if they were telling us_ to
> drink as much as we like.

Note that this is not grammatically an abbreviation, I believe. Additionally 酒
can refer to any alcoholic drink and not just the one we call sake in English
(日本酒).




～てくれ is an imperative form that's stronger than ～てください or ～て, but a little
weaker than the plain imperative (飲め). と here is the same quotative と as in
～という. You can think of this sentence as saying something like

> 好きなだけ飲んでくれ **と言っているかのように** 、庭に置かれた酒の大樽

> There was a cask of spirits in the garden, _as if they were telling us_ to
> drink as much as we like.

Note that this is not grammatically an abbreviation, I believe. Additionally 酒
can refer to any alcoholic drink and not just the one we call sake in English
(日本酒).

