O' the marriages in May, the bairns die o' decay.
O' twa ills choose the least.
Our ain reek's better than ither folk's fire.
Our sins and debts are aften mair than we think.
Our sowens are ill sour'd, ill seil'd, ill sauted, ill sodden, thin, an' little o' them. Ye may stay a' night, but ye may gang hame if ye like. It's weel kenn'd your faither's son was ne'er a scambler.
This proverb is, we think, fairly entitled to rank as the second longest on record, the first being, as recorded by Trench, the German one, "Folk say there is a lack of four people on earth," &c. Kelly says that "this was a speech of a countrywoman of mine to a guest that she would gladly have shaken off, and being so oddly expressed it became a proverb, which we repeat when we think our friend does not entertain us heartily."
Out o' debt, out o' danger.
Out o' God's blessing into the warm sun.
Out o' Davy Lindsay into Wallace.
"Davy Lindsay and Wallace" were two books formerly used in schools; and the proverb is used when a person changes, or, more properly, advances from one thing to another.