The tools you will need are a hammer and a marline-spike. A sailor’s marline-spike is made of iron, and is about six inches long, like that in Fig. 1; but you can easily whittle from a bit of any hard wood a peg that will answer the purpose of a marline-spike. To begin the splice, take a small rope, like a clothes-line (if possible, a new one in which the strands are unworn), and first untwist, or, as we sailors say, unlay, about four inches of it. Then wind thread tightly around the end of each strand to keep it in shape. Next bend the rope around into a loop of any size desired, letting the loose strands or cords cross on the upper side and project beyond the rope. Be sure that, as you hold the loop toward you, the rope bends toward the right. [Illustration: FIG. 1.—MARLINE-SPIKE AND EYE-SPLICE.] At the point of crossing, twist the solid or “standing” part of the rope the wrong way, so as to open it a little, and thrust the spike in between the strands, pushing it in until the strands are well apart. Now draw the spike out and put the end of the first loose strand into the enlarged opening. To do this easily you should insert the spike with its point toward the loose ends, so that, as you draw it out, you can follow it closely with the first end before the separated strands close. Draw the end up tight, as shown in the cut. Then take the spike and separate the next strand in the rope from the others, and insert the second loose end in the same way, and similarly place the third end under the third strand of the rope. At this stage, your splice will look like Fig. 1, and a little study of that diagram will show you, better than I can tell you, just how to insert the strands. Continue the work, by passing the first end over one strand and under the next, and do the same with the second and third ends. When each end has been woven in twice, take off the thread from the ends and cut about a third from the under side of each one, making it that much thinner than before. Bind the ends again with the thread, and weave each one under another strand of the rope. Again take off the thread and cut off half of what remains from the under side of each of the loose ends; replace the thread, weave under again, draw each end up tightly, and cut it off close to the rope. If you have carefully followed the directions, each end will pass over and under the strands alternately, and no two ends next each other will pass under the same strand. You must always remember, in working with a rope, to twist every strand hard and tight, and to draw it snugly to place. And in making a splice, the rope should be pounded frequently with the hammer or a piece of wood, and rolled back and forth under your foot. This operation makes the strands sink into one another and look smooth and even.