It means to go slow--to be sure before you leap.

It sums up a' the caution and the findness for feeling his way that's made the Scot what he is in the wide world over.

But it's a saying that's spread to England, and that's come to have a special meaning of its own.

As a certain sort of workingman uses it it means this: "I maun be carfu' lest I do too much.

If I do as much as I can I'll always have to do it, and I'll get no mair pay for doing better--the maister'll mak' all the profit.