FIG. 29.
Of all hitches, however, the one which any man or boy can least afford not to know is the Clove hitch. Make two bights or loops, as in [Fig. 29]; hold them between the thumbs and forefingers at a, b; slide the left loop over the right loop; then slip the double loop thus formed over the table-leg, or your brother Willie’s finger, or anything that will represent a post, and draw tight by the end ([Fig. 30]). Practise this until your fingers can do it swiftly and of themselves, just as your tongue can say the alphabet; for a Clove hitch, when it is used, needs to be made quickly and handsomely. I once saw a young cadet from Annapolis, who had been out on a sailing party with some ladies and had jumped ashore with a rope, hesitate at least half a minute before he could think how to make the proper knot, while a number of old sea captains sitting by were watching him and laughing among themselves. A Clove hitch may be used, too, when, while out fishing, you extemporize an anchor by tying a rope to a stone. And in [Fig. 31] you see again how this knot, e (with a half-hitch, f in front of it), is used to tow a floating spar or drag a piece of timber across the field.
FIG. 30.—THE CLOVE HITCH.
Two other hitches, a Rolling hitch and a Cat’s-paw, are shown in [Fig. 32].
