Puss in Boots

Once upon a time there was a miller who had three sons. When he died, he left them almost nothing at all—only his mill, his donkey, and his cat. The sharing out was quick, for there was no lawyer needed to divide so little. The eldest son took the mill, the second took the donkey, and the youngest was left with only the cat.

The youngest son was not pleased with his share.

"My brothers can join what they have and make a fine living together," he sighed. "But once I've eaten my cat and made myself mittens from his fur, I'll have nothing left, and I'll starve."

The cat had heard every word, though he pretended not to. Now he looked up at his master with a grave and thoughtful face.

"Don't worry yourself, master," he said. "Just get me a sack, and have a pair of boots made for my feet, so I can go through the bushes and briars, and you'll see that I'm not such a poor inheritance after all."

The young man didn't put much faith in this, but he had seen the cat do clever things before—hanging upside down by his heels to fool the rats, or lying still as death in the flour bin to catch the mice who came sniffing—so he decided to trust him, since he had little else to lose. He got the cat his boots and his sack.

Once booted, the cat marched off looking very grand, the sack slung over his shoulder, its strings held neatly in his two front paws. He went to a rabbit warren, put some bran and fresh greens inside the sack, then stretched himself out as if he were dead, and waited. It wasn't long before a young, foolish rabbit, knowing nothing of the tricks of the world, hopped right into the sack to nibble at what was inside. In an instant the cat pulled the strings tight and caught him.

Very pleased with himself, Puss carried his prize straight to the palace and asked to see the King.

He was shown up to the King's own rooms, where he bowed low and said, "Sire, I bring you a rabbit from my master, my Lord the Marquis of Carabas"—for that was the grand name Puss had invented for the miller's son—"who begs you to accept it as a gift."

"Tell your master I thank him, and that this pleases me greatly," said the King.

Another day, Puss hid himself among the wheat, holding his sack open just so, and caught two fat partridges the same way. These too he brought to the King, who was just as delighted, and gave the cat a reward. For two or three months Puss kept up this game, bringing his master's "gifts" to the palace again and again.

Then one day, hearing that the King planned to ride along the river with his daughter—the loveliest princess in the whole land—Puss came to his master with a plan.

"If you do exactly as I say, your fortune is made," he said. "Go and bathe in the river, at the spot I'll show you. Leave the rest to me."

The young man didn't understand what good this could do, but he obeyed. While he was bathing, the King's carriage came rolling by, and Puss began to shout with all his might:

"Help! Help! My Lord the Marquis of Carabas is drowning!"

At the noise, the King put his head out of the carriage window, and recognizing the cat who had brought him so much fine game, he ordered his guards to rush and save the Marquis at once.

While the guards were pulling the dripping young man from the water, Puss ran up to the carriage and explained, quite seriously, that while his master was bathing, thieves had crept by and stolen all his clothes—though he'd cried out for help as loud as he could. (In truth, the clever cat had simply hidden the clothes himself, under a large stone.) The King immediately commanded that a fine suit be brought from his own wardrobe for the Marquis.

Dressed so handsomely—for he was already a good-looking young man—the miller's son looked every bit a nobleman, and the princess, watching from the carriage, found herself quite taken with him. When he offered her a few shy, admiring glances, she fell in love at once. The King invited him to ride along with them, and he gladly accepted.

Puss, delighted that his plan was working, ran on ahead of the carriage. He came upon some farmers mowing a great meadow and said to them, "Good people, if the King asks you whose meadow this is, tell him it belongs to my Lord the Marquis of Carabas—or you'll be chopped as fine as meadow herbs!"

Sure enough, when the King's carriage passed and he asked whose meadow it was, the frightened mowers answered together, "It belongs to my Lord the Marquis of Carabas."

"You have fine land there," the King said to the young man, who merely smiled and said the meadow gave a good harvest every year.

Puss ran on further and met some farmhands reaping a great field of grain. He gave them the very same warning, and so when the King asked whose field it was, they too answered, "My Lord the Marquis of Carabas." The King was more and more impressed by the size of the young Marquis's estates.

At last Puss reached a splendid castle, home to an ogre, the richest ogre anyone had ever known—for all the lands the King had passed belonged to this very castle. Puss, who had cleverly found out all about the ogre beforehand, asked to be received, saying he couldn't pass so near without paying his respects.

The ogre welcomed him and offered him a seat.

"I have heard," said Puss, "that you have the power to turn yourself into any creature you wish—even a lion, or an elephant."

"That is true," growled the ogre. "Watch." And at once he became a lion.

Puss was so startled that he scrambled up onto the roof gutter, though his boots made the climb slow and awkward. When the ogre changed back to himself, Puss climbed down and admitted he'd been quite frightened.

"I've also heard," he said, "though I can hardly believe it—that you can turn into something very small. A rat, say, or even a mouse. Surely that isn't possible?"

"Impossible? Watch!" cried the ogre, and in a blink he became a mouse, scurrying across the floor.

That was exactly what Puss had been waiting for. He pounced at once and made quick work of the mouse, and the ogre was no more.

Just then the King's carriage came rattling over the drawbridge, and Puss ran out to greet it. "Welcome, Your Majesty, to the castle of my Lord the Marquis of Carabas!"

"What, my Lord Marquis—this castle is yours too?" said the King, amazed. "I have never seen anything so grand. Might we see inside?"

The young man offered his hand to the princess, and they followed the King through the gates into a great hall, where a magnificent feast had been laid out—the ogre had prepared it for friends who were to visit that very day, but who did not dare come in once they saw the King's men about.

The King, charmed by the young man's manner and dazzled by his fortune—and his daughter quite lost in love already—turned to him and said, "It will be your own fault, my Lord Marquis, if you do not become my son-in-law."

The young man bowed low and gladly accepted, and that very day he married the princess.

As for Puss, he became a great lord himself, and from then on he chased mice only when he felt like it, just for the fun of the thing.