WHEN THE OWL MARRIED
Cherokee
ONCE there was a widow with only one daughter. She said often, “You should marry and then there will be a man to go hunting.”
Then one day a man came courting the daughter. He said, “Will you marry me?”
The girl said, “I can only marry a good worker. We need a man who is a good hunter and who will work in the cornfield.”
“I am exactly that sort of a man,” he said. So the mother said they might marry.
Then the next morning the mother gave the man a hoe. She said, “Go, hoe the corn. When breakfast is ready I will call you.” Then she went to call him. She followed a sound as of someone hoeing on stony soil. When she reached the place, there was only a small circle of hoed ground. Over in the thicket someone said, “Hoo-hoo!”
When the man came back in the evening, the mother said, “Where have you been all day?”
He said, “Hard at work.”