thing to escape his grasp, is said to "have a ready
mouth for a ripe cherry." The rich beauty, too, of the cherry, which
causes it to be gathered, has had this moral application attached
to it:--

"A woman and a cherry are painted for their own harm."

Speaking of cherries, it may be mentioned that the awkwardness of eating
them on account of their stones, has given rise to sundry proverbs, as
the following:--

"Eat peas with the king, and cherries with the beggar,"

and:--

"Those that eat cherries with great persons shall have their eyes
squirted out with the stones."

A man who makes a great show without a corresponding practice is said to
be like "fig-tree fuel, much smoke and little fire," and another
adage says:--

"Peel a fig for your friend, and a peach for your enemy."

This proverb, however, is not quite clear when applied to this country.
"To peel a fig, so far as we are concerned," writes Mr. Hazlitt[2], "can
have no significance, except that we should not regard it as a friendly
service; but, in fact, the proverb is merely a translation from the
Spanish, and in that language and country the phrase carries a very full
meaning, as no one would probably like to eat a fig without being sure
that the fruit had not been tampered with. The whole saying is, however,
rather unintelligible. 'Peeling a peach' would be treated anywhere as a
dubious attention."

Of the many proverbs connected with thorns, there is the true one which
tells us how,

"He that goes barefoot must not plant thorns,"

The meaning of which is self-evident, and the person who lives in a
chronic state of uneasiness is said to, "sit on thorns." Then there is
the oft-quoted adage:--

"While thy shoe is on thy foot, tread upon the thorns."

On the other hand, that no position in life is exempt from trouble of
some kind is embodied in this proverb:--

"Wherever a man dwells he shall be sure to have a thorn bush
near his door,"

which Ray also explains in its literal sense, remarking that there "are
few places in England where a man can dwell, but he shall have one near
him." Then, again, thorns are commonly said to "make the greatest
crackling," and "the thorn comes forth with its point forward."

Many a great man has wished himself poor and obscure in his hours of
adversity, a sentiment contained in the following proverb:--

"The pine wishes herself a shrub when the axe is at her root."

A quaint phrase app