Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/125

 110 house one day on an outside car. It was a sixpenny drive, but rather a long one; and the carman began to grumble. Whereupon Dan, in the utmost good humour, replied:—‘Oh you must take the little potato with the big potato.’ A very apt maxim in many of life's affairs, and often heard in and around Dublin.

‘Good goods are tied up in small parcels’: said of a little man or a little woman, in praise or mitigation. (Moran: Carlow.)

‘Easy with the hay, there are boys on the ladder.’ When a man is on the top of the stack forking down hay, he is warned to look out and be careful if other boys are mounting up the ladder, lest he may pitch it on their heads. The proverb is uttered when a person is incautiously giving expression to words likely to offend some one present. (Moran: Carlow.)

Be cautious about believing the words of a man speaking ill of another against whom he has a grudge: 'Spite never spoke well.' (Moran: Carlow.)

Don't encroach too much on a privilege or it may be withdrawn: don't ask too much or you may get nothing at all:—'Covetousness bursts the bag.'

Three things not to be trusted—a cow's horn, a dog's tooth, and a horse's hoof.

Three disagreeable things at home:—a scolding wife; a squalling child; and a smoky chimney.

Three good things to have. I heard this given as a toast exactly as I give it here, by a fine old gentleman of the old times:—‘Here's that we may always have a clane shirt; a clane conscience; and a guinea in our pocket.’