If you have a very long rope and wish to shorten it, the best way to do is to make a _sheep-shank_, which will never slip, no matter how taut the strain may be. Lay the parts as in Fig. 11, and then take half-hitches over the bights as in Fig. 12.
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.
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_.
A _breastknot_ is only an ornament. It can be tied with ribbon, and makes a very pretty bow, or can be used by the ladies as a frog for a sacque. It consists, first, of three half-hitches overlapping each other as in Fig. 18. Interweave the part _a_ under _b_ and over _c_; _b_ over _a_ and under _d_. Then draw out the bight _a_ over _e_, and the bight _b_ over _f_, when we will have the knot as in Fig. 19.
If you wish to fasten together the ends of two ropes on which there is to be considerable strain, form them in the shape of a _becket-hitch_ as in Fig. 20.
[Begun in No. 92 of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, August 2.]
During the first day of Tim's stay at the Simpson farm he was careful to help in every kind of work, and many were the praises he won from Mrs. Simpson, who held him up as an example to Sam, until that young man almost felt sorry he had brought him there.