It was long, long ago, down where Two Medicine and Badger Rivers come together, that an old man lived with his wife and three daughters.  One day there came to his camp a young man, good-looking, a good hunter, and brave.  He stayed in the camp for some time, and whenever he went hunting he killed game and brought in great loads of meat.

All this time the old man was watching him, for he said in his heart, “This seems a good young man and a good hunter.  Perhaps I will give him my daughters for wives, and then he will stay here and help me always.”

After a time the old man decided to do this, and he gave the young man his daughters; and because these three were his only children he gave his son-in-law his dogs and all his property, and for himself and his wife he kept only a little lodge.  The young man’s wives tanned plenty of cow skins and made a big fine lodge, and in this the son-in-law lived with his wives.

For some time after this the son-in-law was very good and kind to the old people.  When he killed any animal he gave them part of the meat, and gave them skins which his mother-in-law tanned for robes or for clothing.

As time went on the son-in-law began to grow stingy, and pretty soon he gave nothing to his father-in-law’s lodge, but kept everything for his own.

Now, the son-in-law was a person of much mysterious power, and he kept the buffalo hidden under a big log-jam in the river.  Whenever he needed food and wished to kill anything, he would take his father-in-law with him to help.  He would send the old man out to stamp on the log-jam and frighten the buffalo, and when they ran out from under it the young man would shoot one or two with his arrows, never killing more than he needed.  But often he gave the old people nothing at all to eat.  They were hungry all the time, and at length they began to grow thin and weak.

One morning early the young man asked his father-in-law to come and hunt with him.  They went to the log-jam and the old man drove out the buffalo and his son-in-law killed a fat buffalo cow.  Then he said to his father-in-law, “Hurry back now to the camp and tell your daughters to come and carry home the meat, and then you can have something to eat.”  The old man set out for the camp, thinking, as he walked along, “Now, at last, my son-in-law has taken pity on me; he will give me some of this meat.”

When he returned with his daughters they skinned the cow and cut it up and, carrying it, went home.  The young man had his wives leave the meat at his own lodge and told his father-in-law to go home.  He did not give him even a little piece of the meat.  The two older daughters gave their parents nothing to eat, but sometimes the youngest one had pity on them and took a piece of meat and, when she could, threw it into the lodge to the old people.  The son-in-law had told his wives not to give the old people anything to eat.  Except for the good heart of the youngest daughter they would have died of hunger.