Part 124

"A minister having in these words compared the covenant, made it a proverb. Applied to a thing that is useful no way."--Kelly.

Like paddy's ghost, twa steps ahint.

Like's an ill mark amang ither folk's sheep.

Like the bairns o' Falkirk, they'll end ere they mend.

"This is a proverbial saying of ill-doing persons, as expressive of there being no hope of them. How the children of Falkirk came to be so characterized, it would be difficult now to ascertain. The adage has had the effect of causing the men of Falkirk jocularly to style themselves 'the bairns;' and when one of them speaks of another as 'a bairn,' he only means that that other person is a native of Falkirk."--Robert Chambers.

Like the cat, fain fish wad ye eat, but ye are laith to weet your feet.

"The cat is fain the fish to eat, but hath no will to wet her feet."--English.

"Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,' like the poor cat i' the adage."--Macbeth.

Like the cowts o' Bearbughty, ye're cowts till ye're best's by.

Like the cur in the crub, he'll neither do nor let do.

A Scottish version of the dog in the manger.

Like the dam o' Devon, lang gathered and soon gane.

Like the fiddler o' Chirnside's breakfast, it's a' pennyworth's thegither.

"This is said of people who buy very small quantities of any article. Fiddlers are proverbially poor, and the one of Chirnside was no exception to the rule. One morning he sent his boy for materials for breakfast, and the order was delivered to the shopkeeper in the following measured terms:--

"'A pennyworth o' tea, A pennyworth o' sugar, Three penny loaves, And a pennyworth o' butter; And a pennyworth o' he herring, For my faither likes melts!'"--G. Henderson.

Like the gudeman o' Kilpalet, ye're ower simple for this warld, and hae nae broo o' the next.

Like the laird o' Castlemilk's foals--born beauties.

Like the lassies o' Bayordie, ye learn by the lug.

Like the man o' Amperly's coo, she's come hame routin', but no very fu', wi' the tow about her horns.

"The cow came home unsold; and the rhyme is applied to a young woman who comes home from a fair or market without a 'jo' or sweetheart."--G. Henderson.

Like the man wi' the sair guts--nae getting quat o't.

Like the smith's dog, sleep at the sound o' the hammer, and wauk at the crunching o' teeth.

Like the tod's whalps, aye the aulder the waur.

Like the wabster, stealing through the warld.

Another insult to the weaving profession. The reply of a person who is asked how he is getting on.

Like the wife that ne'er cries for the ladle till the pat rins o'er.

That is, never asks for an article until it is too late.

Like the wife wi' the mony dochters, the best's aye hindmost.