The girl at the Christmas Soirée was pressed to take some preserves to her tea and bread and butter: "No, thank yo'," she responded, "aw works wheer they maks it."[6] [6] "The image-maker does not worship Buddha; he knows too much about the idol."--Chinese saying. Old stingy Eccles was talking one day to his coachman, who he was trying to impress with his own super-excellent quality, though he had never used his old Jehu over-well in the matter of wages. "John," he said, "there's two sorts of Eccleses; there's Eccleses that are angels, and Eccleses that are devils." "Ay, maister," responded John, "an' th' angels ha' been deod for mony a yer!" A temperance meeting was being held in a Lancashire village, and one of the speakers, waxing eloquent, not to say pathetic, exclaimed: "How pleased my poor dead father must be, looking down on me, his son, advocating teetotalism from this platform!" One of the audience, interrupting him, rose and interjected: "Nay, nay, that'll do noan, mon; if aw know'd thi feythur reet when he're alive, he's moar like lookin' _up_ than deawn!" I was amused with the answer given by a working man to an acquaintance. He was hurrying to the railway station with a small hand-bag on "Wakes Monday morning." "Wheer ar't beawn, Jack?" "Aw'm fur th' Isle o' Man." "Heaw long ar't stayin'?" "Thirty bob," was the laconic reply, meaning that the length of his stay would depend on the time his money might last. * * * * * Lancashire Proverbs are numerous and much to the point, and they generally inculcate their lesson with a touch of dry humour. An expressive saying is that: "_He hangs th' fiddle at th' dur sneck_" applied to a person who is all life and gaiety when with his boon companions, but sullen and sour of temper at home. Another proverb has it that "_There's most thrutching where there's least room_." Hence, probably, the Lancashire fable: "The flea and the elephant were passing into the Ark together, said the flea to his big brother: 'Now then, maister! no thrutching!'" There is quaint wisdom in the saying, "_It costs a deal more playing than working_." "_Th' quiet sow eats o' t' draff_," is another Lancashire proverb of deep significance as applied to any one who speaks little, but appears to take in all that he hears, and uses it to his own advantage. When one gets married "_he larns wot meyl is a pound_." The safe rule as to food for children, is, "_rough and enough_." In choosing a wife the swain is warned that "_Fine faces fill no butteries, an' fou uns rob no cubbarts_." The Lancashire farmer says that, "_A daisy year is a lazy year_," because when daisies are plentiful in the fields the crop of grass is usually light. Other proverbs tell us that "_An honest mon an' a west wind alus go to bed at neet_," and "_Fleet at meyt fleet at wark_." "_The first cock of hay drives the cuckoo away._"