This advises thrift. If you start with a little and continually add a little, you will eventually have a mickle, which is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning ‘much’. If, for example, you put aside ten shillings a week you will have £130 in five years. The Scottish version, ‘many a mickle makes a muckle, ‘ uses ‘mickle’ instead of ‘little’, and ‘muckle’ instead of ‘mickle’, but it means the same thing as above.