Hot ashes for him are the Water of Life.
FOOTNOTES:
[778] A hawk that falls into deep still water can flap its way to shore—certainly for twenty or thirty yards.
CHAPTER LXV
SAGE ADVICE
Never forget the advice I will now give you. First: borrow nothing from any man, neither one penny nor a million; for if your request be granted, you are under an eternal obligation and must ever carry out the orders of him who hath obliged you.[779] Borrowing hawks, and dogs, and greyhounds, which are instruments of the chase—bad though such borrowing be—does not place you under a very great obligation, and further, should the loan be refused, it is no great slight to you.
Second: Three things you should never lend to any friend or sportsman; your own special horse, your own special gun, and your own special hawk. Lending any one of these is like lending your wife; therefore, my friend, lend none of these; for, if you do, the bands of friendship will be changed for the bonds of enmity. Bestow things freely, if you like, for giving is generosity.
Lend not at all, or else when thou hast lent
Seek not again from the recipient:
Of what they’ve lent, they seek no restitution
Such as be men of gen’rous constitution.