COYOTE WAS GOING ALONG as usual looking for some food when he came to a lodge. There were two women inside, an old widow and her daughter, who was very beautiful. Coyote went in and began telling stories, and the widow, who was glad to have a visitor, made a big meal of salmon. Coyote looked around at all the food hanging from the ceiling and piled up in boxes.
When the meal was over Coyote said, “Old Woman, I will marry your daughter.”
The woman had heard him tell what a great warrior he was and this made her happy. She agreed.
Later Coyote said to his new wife, “You know I love you very much. I am going to make your mother a nice canoe out of red cedar. Tomorrow I’ll go out and look for a good log.”
The young woman told her mother about this right away.
The next morning the old woman got up and fixed a big breakfast. When it was ready, she called Coyote and he came and ate. Then he went off to search for red cedar.
Coyote came back just before evening and said he had found a red cedar log that was a good size.
“I will cut it down tomorrow,” he told his wife. “Then I will cut it the right length for a canoe.”
His mother-in-law made him a big supper.
After he had eaten all he could, Coyote lay down. He whispered to his wife, “When the canoe is finished, we will go for a long trip. You will sit in the stern, your mother in the middle, and I will sit in the bow. We’ll have a good time.”
The next morning Coyote got up when his mother-in-law called and had another big breakfast. Then he took his mother-in-law’s tools and went out. They heard him chopping on the tree all day, then they heard the tree crash and then more chopping.
Coyote came home weary and sore from all the work. He told his wife, “Tell your mother that when I come home at night I want her to boil some good dried salmon. I like this kind of soup. It’s good for a man who is working on a canoe.”
The old woman cooked like this for four nights. When the fourth day came, Coyote told his wife that the canoe was almost finished. Then he said he wanted to rest and eat for a while because he had been working so hard.
By this time the old woman’s provisions were very low, and some of the food boxes were empty.
A few days later Coyote went back to work. He always took along some food for his dinner. Now the old woman was beginning to worry because there was so little food left. She said to her daughter, “Go quietly and see how he is coming along. We do not have much food left.”
The young woman went along until she came to where Coyote was. There she saw him standing at the end of an old rotten cedar log, banging it with a stone to make a noise like a man using an ax. There was a large hole in the log and this made a lot of noise when Coyote hit it.
She left and went back and told her mother what she had seen. They took their old canoe and all the provisions that were left and went away.
Coyote came back just before night. When he came in sight of the lodge he was glad and whistled because he thought his mother-in-law would be making a supper of dried salmon. But when he went in he saw there was nothing there. There was just a little fire and some old wooden boxes.
Coyote went on his way again.