Be careful to draw the strands even and snug. This braid has one great advantage over others. It may be split into two or more narrower braids, as you see in Fig. 8, and afterward braided together again, leaving an open loop, or a sort of button-hole. A glance at Fig. 8 will show you just how this is accomplished, and that it is an easy task. [Illustration: FIG. 8.] In a navy hammock, the cords which support the body are woven into a flat braid which starts with two or three strands and has the others gradually woven in, two at a time, one on each side. This finishes it off very neatly, and keeps the cords from tangling, and is a great improvement on simply putting the cords through the ring, which has a bungling appearance, as they are generally in a snarl. This braid may be more easily made by “putting the cart before the horse”; that is, by beginning at what is apparently the wrong end. Take the cords double length, and draw them all through the ring, until half the length is on each side. There will be twice as many strands as you had cords. Begin a flat braid, as in Fig. 8, until all the strands are woven in. If there are twelve, you then leave out the outside strand on each side and continue the braid with ten; leave out two again, and continue with the middle eight; and so on until you have but two left. Tie these firmly together, and the braid will not work loose. [Illustration: FIG. 9.] The queer-looking flat open-work braid shown in Fig. 9 is much used at sea, but it is hard to make of anything but tarred hemp rope-yarns, because it always inclines to loosen. The tarred rope does not slip like ordinary cord. In this braid, the strands do not cross the braid, but each one simply locks into its neighbor. To make it, you twist the first strand around the second, the second around the third, the third around the fourth, and so on across the braid. In the figure, the first has been twisted around the second, and the second is ready to twist around the third. These braids can be easily learned by following the descriptions, and by referring to the cuts. Girls may use them in many ways; that shown in Fig. 5 is pretty for the hair. But I need not point out the various uses to which they may be put, for I am sure you all will discover them for yourselves. III. THE “MADERWOCKER.” This object bears no relation to the famous Jabberwock; in fact, it is simply a knot in common use among sailors; and the mysterious-sounding name is merely a very bad way of pronouncing “Matthew Walker.” Matthew Walker was an inventor, and, though his name has become gibberish, his knot is as good as ever, and is a very useful one. Whenever a rope is put through a hole and held by a knot, there is the place for a maderwocker, one that is not clumsy, will hold fast, and never loosen. The boys can use it on sled-ropes, swings, rope handles to boxes, and in many other places. [Illustration: FIG 10.—A SINGLE MADERWOCKER.]