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as sure as Christmas, and then they haven't a penny-piece in the world,
and so they make all sorts of excuses and begin to promise again. Those
who are quick to promise are generally slow to perform. They promise
mountains and perform mole-hills. He who gives you fair words and
nothing more feeds you with an empty spoon, and hungry creditors soon
grow tired of that game. Promises don't fill the belly. Promising men
are not great favorites if they are not performing men. When such a
fellow is called a liar he thinks he is hardly done by; and yet he is
so, as sure as eggs are eggs, and there's no denying it, as the boy said
when the gardener caught him up the cherry-tree.

A HAND-SAW IS A GOOD THING, BUT NOT TO SHAVE WITH.

Our friend will cut more than he will eat, and shave oft something more
than hair, and then he will blame the saw. His brains don't lie in his
beard, nor yet in the skull above it, or he would see that his saw will
only make sores. There's sense in choosing your tools, for a pig's tail
will never make a good arrow, nor will his ear make a silk purse. You
can't catch rabbits with drums, nor pigeons with plums. A good thing is
not good out of its place. It is much the same with lads and girls; you
can't put all boys to one trade, nor send all girls to the same service.
One chap will make a London clerk, and another will do better to plough,
and sow, and reap, and mow, and be a farmer's boy. It's no use forcing
them; a snail will never run a race, nor a mouse drive a wagon.

"Send a boy to the well against his will,
The pitcher will break, and the water spill."

With unwilling hounds it is hard to hunt hares. To go against nature and
inclination is to row against wind and tide. They say you may praise a
fool till you make him useful. I don't know so much about that, but I do
know that if I get a bad knife I generally cut my finger, and a blunt
axe is more trouble than profit. No, let me shave with a razor if I
shave at all, and do my work with the best tools I can get.

Never set a man to work he is not fit for, for he will never do it well.
They say that if pigs fly they always go with their tails forward, and
awkward workmen are much the same. Nobody expects cows to catch crows,
or hens to wear hats. There's reason in roasting eggs, and there should
be reason in choosing servants. Don't put a round peg into a square
hole, nor wind up your watch with a corkscrew, nor set a tender-heart