Then the crow laughed, “Haw, haw! I know how to kill that bear; it is easy. Cousin, you will go inside the dead salmon, and I will put it in the bear’s track.”
“O no!” said the mink. “I am afraid. You go yourself into the salmon.”
But the crow was boss. “I do not wish to go into the salmon,” said he. “You go yourself. I am bigger than you, and I have wings. I will put you into the salmon, and I will put the salmon in the bear’s track, and don’t you move one bit, even if you are scared. I will tell you what to do. If the bear comes, keep very still. If he opens his mouth to bite, you just jump down his throat, and go in as far as you can. Bite him hard inside, and then he will drop dead.”
The mink was terribly afraid, but the crow said, “I will help you. When the bear drops dead, I will run out of my hiding-place, and cut a little door in his side with my knife, and you will jump out. If you do that, we will live well and have lots of meat to eat all winter.”
The poor mink looked very sad indeed, but did not dare to refuse to do what the crow told him.
“All right,” said the mink, “I will do it, but I know that I shall die.”
The crow went to work to prepare the big fish. He skinned it nicely, and when it was ready, put his cousin, the mink, inside of it, and laid it where the bear track was.
The mink was terribly frightened inside the salmon, because he knew the bear would eat him up. The crow hid among the willows and watched his cousin.
“The bear came around by the same track and saw the salmon”