"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.