Fig. 14.
Fig. 15.
A true-lovers' knot is only useful between sailors and their sweethearts. It has the peculiar charm of foretelling the feelings of the one you love. Place your cord or ribbon as in Fig. 13. Then put your fingers down through the loop a, and catch hold of the bight at b as in Fig. 14. Now withdraw your hand, carrying the bight along, and you will have the two knots as they appear in Fig. 15. After this, conceal them with your hand, and ask your fair friend to select one cord from each side and pull. If the knots separate, your hopes have been drawn asunder, but if they remain together, your future prospects are assured. Thus a and b would draw them apart.
Fig. 16.
Fig. 17.
There is a favorite little trick called a Tom-fool's knot. It amounts only to a sleight-of-hand, and must be made very deftly to be effective. First hold the cord by the parts a and b as in Fig. 16. Then pass, with the forefinger and thumb of the right hand, the part c under d and up through the loop. With the left hand pass d over c down through the loop, after which you will have the knot represented in Fig. 17, which can be at once drawn apart by the ends e and f.