“Oh, my younger brother!” said the elder. “These will not be acceptable to the girl at all; she would not have them in the house!”
“Oh, yes, she would,” said the younger; “we will take them along as a present to her.”
So they went on, and it was hardly noon when they arrived with their strings of rats at the white cliffs on the southern side of the cañon opposite the village where the maiden lived.
“Here, let us sit down in the shade of this cliff,” said the elder brother, “for it is not proper to go courting until evening.”
“Oh, no,” said the younger, “let us go along now. I am in a hurry! I am in a hurry!”
“You are a fool!” said the elder brother; “you should not think of going courting before evening. Stay here patiently.”
So they sat down in the shade of the cliff. But the younger kept jumping up and running out to see how the sun was all the afternoon, and he would go and smooth out his string of rats from time to time, and then go and look at the sun again. Finally, when the sun was almost set, he called out: “Now, come on!”
“Wait until it is wholly dark,” said the other. “You never did have any patience, sense, or dignity about you.”
“Why not go now?” asked the younger.
So they kept quarrelling, but the elder brother’s wish prevailed until it was nearly dark, when they went on.