rt Ringhorse used to say, the herd lads shot as mony
gleds and pyots as they did game. But new lords new laws--naething
but fine and imprisonment, and the game no a feather the
plentier."--_St Ronan's Well._

Next to nae wife, a gude ane's best.

Nineteen naesays o' a maiden is half a grant.

"Her laugh will lead you to the place,
Where lies the happiness ye want;
And plainly tell you to your face,
Nineteen nae-says are half a grant."--_Tea-Table Miscellany._

Nipping and scarting's Scotch folk's wooing.

"It may be Scotch folk's wooing; but if that's the gait Betty Bodle
means to use you, Watty, my dear, I would see her, and a' the
Kilmarkeckles that ever were cleckit, doon the water, or strung in a
wuddy, before I would hae onything to say to ane come o' their seed
or breed. To lift her hands to her bridegroom!"--_The Entail._

Now-a-days truth's news.

Now's now, and Yule's in winter.

[Illustration]

O' ae ill come mony.

O' a' fish i' the sea, herring is king.

O' a' ills, nane's best.

O' a' little tak a little; when there's nought tak a'.

O' a' meat i' the warld the drink gaes best down.

O' a' sorrow, a fu' sorrow's the best.

"Spoken when friends die and leave good legacies."--_Kelly._

O' a' the months o' the year curse a fair Februar.

O' bairns' gifts ne'er be fain; nae sooner they gie than they tak it
again.

O' gude advisement comes nae ill.

O' ill debtors men get aiths.

"Aith," or oath, is here used in the sense of promise, signifying
that from "ill debtors" men get not money but promises, which, of
course, are never performed.

Oh for a drap o' gentle blude, that I may wear black abune my brow.

"In Scotland no woman is suffered to wear a silk hood unless she be
a gentlewoman; that is, a gentleman's daughter, or married to a
gentleman. A rich maid having the offer of a wealthy yeoman, or a
bare gentleman, wished for the last, to qualify her to wear a black
hood. It is since spoken to such wealthy maidens upon the like
occasion."--_Kelly._

O' little meddling comes muckle care.

On painting and fighting look abeigh.

On the sea sail, on the land settle.

Onything for ye about an honest man's house but a day's wark.

"Onything sets a gude face," quo' the monkey wi' the mutch on.

Open confession is gude for the soul.

Oppression will mak a wise man wud.

O'