FIG. 2.—THE WRONG WAY.
Believing that these words of Captain Israel are worth heeding, and wishing, so far as is possible in an article like this, to do for other boys what the worthy old sailor did for me, I shall ask the readers—both boys and girls, mind you—to take a rope and practise, according to the following directions, some few of the most important knots, hitches and splices.
The first thing to be sure of is the right way to fasten together two pieces of string or rope. That is a thing that some of us have to do twenty times a day; and it is quite probable that twenty times a day we do it wrong. Suppose that you wish to lengthen your fish-line, or add another ball to your kite-string: how will you do it? Shall you lay the two ends side by side and then twist them together into a knot just such as your sister would make in the end of her thread, as is seen in [Fig. 2]?
If you do, you may fairly expect that your fish (if you hook him) will get away with the main part of your line, or that presently your kite will go skurrying off to northward far out of your sight, until you find it again, half an hour later, after a hot chase, hanging tangled and torn in one of the trees of farmer Applewood’s orchard. Such a knot is at least as likely to slip as to hold, and, if tied in a rope, is liable sooner or later to cut the rope, because the strain is at right angles. What is really wanted is a Square-knot ([Fig. 3], a).
FIG. 3.
A SQUARE OR REEF-KNOT.
A GRANNY.
Take the two ends and tie them together exactly as you would tie a “hard-knot” in your shoe-string. Only you must be careful and not tie a Granny ([Fig. 3], b).
One may slip, the other won’t.