Part 45 (1/2)

”The rents and the lands are but a sair fash to me,” re-echoed Ailie; ”and I'h Wylie Mactrickit, the writer, was very pressing, and spak very civilly; but I'm ower auld a cat to draw that strae before me--he canna whilli me as he's done mony a ane”--_Old Mortality_

He's ower-shot wi' his ain bow

Overreached with his oeapons

He's ower soon up that's hanged ere noon

He's soger bred but major minded

He's ta'en a start and an owerloup

”The usual expression for a slight encroachhbour's property”--_Sir Walter Scott_

He speaks like a prent book

He speaks in his drink what he thinks in his drouth

He spoke as if every ould lift a dish

In allusion to a person who has addressed another in a very poh that's ill faur'd

He's poor that canna promise

He's rich that has nae debt

He's sairest dung that's paid wi' his ain wand

That is, he suffers most who injures himself by his own folly, or by means which may have been intended to injure another

He's silly that spares for ilka speech

He's sorund

He's the bee that maks the honey

He's the best spoke o' your wheel

He's the slave o' a slaves wha ser's nane but himsel

He's twice fain that sits on a stane

”That is, glad to sit down, because he is weary, and glad to rise, because the stone is hard”--_Kelly_

He starts at straes, and lets windlins gae

This saying is, we think, exclusively Scotch It very briefly but pithily applies to those hile anxiously correcting trifling errors, allow greater ones to pass unheeded: who strain at gnats, and s camels