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Once upon a time there were three people, two men and one woman, 
two men. The men were the younger brothers of the woman. The youngest 
one did not work. He took a stick of saskatoon willow; he kept it, walk- 
ing with it as a cane. His elder brother hunted, providing them with food. 
Then at one time, when they had a big supply of food, the elder 
man said, “Well now, brother, suppose I look for someone to be our brother- 
in-law, so that our sister may have a husband. If we have him for brother- 
in-law, we shall not be embarrassed, when a man is here.” 
“Very well,” the other answered him. 
Presently he set out and tramped along. After one night on the way, 
he saw a tipi. It stood with the door facing the direction of noon. Then 
as he looked, he beheld a crow holding together the tips of the tent-poles. 
When he came there, that creature at the top of the tent gave a call. 
“Come ini” it called to him. 
He entered. There was a man all alone. When he had eaten, a man 
arrived, another youth. 
He said, “What are you seeking, that you wander about?” he asked 
him. 
“Why,” he said, “my idea in wandering about is this: ‘Suppose I 
get a brother-in-law,' is my thought; ‘I shall give him my elder sister,’ 
is my thought, concerning you, for I am inconvenienced by my sister's 
never speaking; that is why I have come to give her to you.” 
“Yes,” the other answered him; “As for me, I do not care about it; 
but perhaps my younger brother right here will like the idea,” he told him. 
“Oh, as yet I am not good enough at killing things, to be able to 
marry, I above all, seeing that even you, who are good at killing things, 
do not like the idea.” 
“Dear me!” said the elder; “Near by here live three of my younger 
brothers and one elder brother, four of them; his three younger brothers 
take care of him. They are very good at killing game,” he told him; “So 
you had better go there,” he told him; “You had better go see them. 
Perhaps one of them will take to the idea,” he told him. 
He went there. As he came over the crest of the hill, there he saw a 
tipi. He saw what held the tips of the tent poles together, an owl, which 
already was giving its call. He went there. 
Just as he reached the place, “Come in, young man!” he was told. 
So he went there. He entered. He was given food. WTien he had 
eaten, look you, a young man came into the tent. He hung up some 
quivers. 
“Hello, what is your errand, that you come here like this?” asked 
the eldest of the brothers. 
He told him, “Oh, it is that I have come to give one of you my sister, 
elder than I,” 
“As for me, I am only given food by my younger brothers. I am no 
good at killing any kind of game. I could not have a wife,” he told him; 
and then, “Now, brothers, some one of you go there!” 
They answered him, “Ho, as if we were any good as yet at killing game! 
I shall not be able to go there,” said all of them. 
“Dear me, young man! At the other side of this hill lives my father. 
He lives with his four eldest sons, and these our elder brothers are not yet 
married; nor are the two young women, our younger sisters,” he told 
