“I don’t see what she can say for herself.”
“Of course, nothing can she say for herself.”
And when the meat was all packed away in the house and the sun had set, they sat by themselves talking this over: “What can she say for herself?”
“Nothing whatever; nothing remains to be done.”
“That is quite so,” said they, as they went in to the evening meal and sat with the family to eat it.
Finally the maiden said: “With all your hunting and the labors of the day, you must be very weary. Where you slept last night you will find a resting-place. Go and rest yourselves. I cannot consent to marry you, because you have not yet shown yourselves capable of taking care of and dressing the buckskins, as well as of killing deer and antelope and such animals. For a long time buckskins have been accumulating in the upper room. I have no brothers to soften and scrape them; therefore, if you Two will take the hair off from all my buckskins tomorrow before sunset, and scrape the underside so that they will be thin and soft, I will consent to be the wife of one of you, or both.”
And they said: “Oh mercy, it is too bad!”
“We can never do it,” said the younger brother.
“I don’t suppose we can; but we can try,” said the elder.
So they lay down.