would
reach from the end of the rule to the notch that marked the four feet
length, and perhaps extend a little beyond. I should then shorten the
measure and apply it again. This time its end would have approached
nearer to the aforesaid notch. Another bit cut off would bring it still
nearer; and the process being repeated, by shaving gradually from the
end of the stick, I should at last find that two lengths of it would
exactly correspond with the length of my four-foot rule. I should then
have a piece exactly two feet in length, and by the help of this I could
find the middle part of the longer piece, and could mark it with a
"nick."

By cutting the short piece into two nearly equal parts, I could then
take the larger of them, and, by a similar process, obtain the standard
of a foot, and mark it also upon my rule; and so on till I had succeeded
in arriving at the inches.

Of course, to do all this would require time, patience, and the nicest
precision; but I had plenty of time upon my hands, and it was my
interest to be both patient and precise.

Although I regarded not the time, just as I was about to carry out the
plan described, another suggested itself that promised to lead me sooner
to the issue; it would call for less patience, though an equal amount of
precision.

This new plan was a sort of corollary of the former one, the only
difference being, that instead of a _stick_ I should perform my
subdivision and graduation with a _string_.

The thongs of my buskins came into my mind--the very thing!

I could not have found a better string for the purpose. They were
strips of best calfskin, cut with the grain, and could not have been
stretched the eighth part of an inch. They would, therefore, measure as
accurately as a rule of boxwood or ivory.

One would not be long enough; so I knotted the two together, taking care
to make a neat, firm knot of it. They made a string of over four feet,
and having laid it along the four-foot rule, I cut it with my knife to
that length exactly. I was not satisfied till I had measured it over
and over again, each time pulling the thong with all my strength, lest
some "kink" might be lurking in it. A slight error would derange my
intended scale, though there is less danger in graduating four feet down
to inches than in going from the less to the greater standard. In the
former, each subdivision naturally lessens the error, while in the
latter it is continually double