ppens, it may come when it will, he
cares not." He is as stubborn as he is stupid, and to get a new thought
into his head you would need to bore a hole in his skull with a
center-bit. The game would not be worth the candle. We must leave him
alone, for he is too old in the tooth, and too blind to be made to see.

DON'T CUT OFF YOUR NOSE TO SPITE YOUR FACE.

Anger is a short madness. The less we do when we go mad the better for
every body, and the less we go mad the better for ourselves. He is far
gone who hurts himself to wreak his vengeance on others. The old saying
is: "Don't cut off your head because it aches," and another says: "Set
not your house on fire to spite the moon." If things go awry, it is a
poor way of mending to make them worse, as the man did who took to
drinking because he could not marry the girl he liked. He must be a fool
who cuts off his nose to spite his face, and yet this is what Dick did
when he had vexed his old master, and because he was chid must needs
give up his place, throw himself out of work, and starve his wife and
family. Jane had been idle, and she knew it, but sooner than let her
mistress speak to her, she gave warning, and lost as good a service as a
maid could wish for. Old Griggs was wrong, and could not deny it, and
yet because the parson's sermon fitted him rather close he took the
sulks, and vowed he would never hear the good man again. It was his own
loss, but he wouldn't listen to reason, but was as willful as a pig.

IT IS HARD FOR AN EMPTY SACK TO STAND UPRIGHT.

Sam may try a fine while before he will make one of his empty sacks
stand upright. If he were not half daft he would have left off that job
before he began it, and not have been an Irishman either. He will come
to his wit's end before he sets the sack on its end. The old proverb,
printed at the top, was made by a man who had burned his fingers with
debtors, and it just means that when folks have no money and are over
head and ears in debt, as often as not they leave off being upright, and
tumble over one way or another. He that has but four and spends five
will soon need no purse, but he will most likely begin to use his wits
to keep himself afloat, and take to all sorts of dodges to manage it.

Nine times out of ten they begin by making promises to pay on a certain
day when it is certain they have nothing to pay with. They are as bold
at fixing the time as if they had my lord's income; the day comes rou