bright-eyed hunger; for if you add
only a little to a little and do this often, soon that little will
become great. What a man has by him at home does not trouble him: it is
better to have your stuff at home, for whatever is abroad may mean loss.
It is a good thing to draw on what you have; but it grieves your heart
to need something and not to have it, and I bid you mark this. Take
your fill when the cask is first opened and when it is nearly spent, but
midways be sparing: it is poor saving when you come to the lees.

(ll. 370-372) Let the wage promised to a friend be fixed; even with your
brother smile--and get a witness; for trust and mistrust, alike ruin
men.

(ll. 373-375) Do not let a flaunting woman coax and cozen and deceive
you: she is after your barn. The man who trusts womankind trusts
deceivers.

(ll. 376-380) There should be an only son, to feed his father's house,
for so wealth will increase in the home; but if you leave a second son
you should die old. Yet Zeus can easily give great wealth to a greater
number. More hands mean more work and more increase.

(ll. 381-382) If your heart within you desires wealth, do these things
and work with work upon work.

(ll. 383-404) When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising [1310],
begin your harvest, and your ploughing when they are going to set
[1311]. Forty nights and days they are hidden and appear again as the
year moves round, when first you sharpen your sickle. This is the law
of the plains, and of those who live near the sea, and who inhabit rich
country, the glens and dingles far from the tossing sea,--strip to
sow and strip to plough and strip to reap, if you wish to get in all
Demeter's fruits in due season, and that each kind may grow in its
season. Else, afterwards, you may chance to be in want, and go begging
to other men's houses, but without avail; as you have already come to
me. But I will give you no more nor give you further measure. Foolish
Perses! Work the work which the gods ordained for men, lest in bitter
anguish of spirit you with your wife and children seek your livelihood
amongst your neighbours, and they do not heed you. Two or three times,
may be, you will succeed, but if you trouble them further, it will
not avail you, and all your talk will be in vain, and your word-play
unprofitable. Nay, I bid you find a way to pay your debts and avoid
hunger.

(ll. 405-413) First of all, get a house, and a woman and an ox for the
plough