the story of a cunning Puss who helped his mistress get a better life
In the olden days, in a small city in Italy, there lived a poor old Miller with his three sons. The years went by and Miller passed away, leaving nothing but his mill, donkey, and a cat. In his testament, he left the mill for the eldest, the donkey for the second-born, and the cat for the youngest son. The youngest son grumbled, “I’ll just end up eating the cat.” Listening to this, Puss, the cat said, “Do not be sad, master. Just give me a bag and a pair of boots. Then, I will show you that you did not receive such a poor inheritance in me.” Thinking how cunning the cat was, he thought to give the cat a chance to help him. He went to the market, spent his last pennies on ordering a pair of boots for the cat, and gave the cat his bag. The cat looked very gallant in his boots.
Then, the cat put bread and corn into his bag, held the strings of the bag in his two fore paws and laid by a rabbit warren stretching as if he were dead. He waited for some young rabbits, who were still not acquainted with the deceit of the world. Not long after that, a reckless young rabbit jumped into his bag, and Puss shortly drew close the strings and caught the rabbit. He went happily to the palace with a rabbit in his bag. He begged to speak with the king. Meeting the king in person, he made a low bow and said, “I have brought you, my majesty, a rabbit of the warren, which my noble lord, the Marquis of Carabas has commanded me to present to you.” The king surely was very pleased with the present. Another time, again, he hid among a cornfield, held his bag open, and when a brace of partridges ran into it, he soon drew the strings and caught them. The same as what he had done before, he made a present of these to the king. The cat kept continuing sending the presents for three months and constantly said that the presents were from his master, the Marquis of Carabas.
One day, he heard that the king and his daughter were about to drive in his carriage along the river bank. Puss in Boots told his master: “If you follow my advice, your fortune is close.” Without questioning and knowing why or wherefore, Miller’s son did what the cat advised him to do. While he was washing, the king passed by, and the cat began to cry out: “Help! Help! My Lord Marquis of Carabas, is going to be drowned!” Hearing that noise, the king put his head out of the coach window, and saw the cat who had so often brought him such nice presents. The cat came up to the coach and told the king that while his lord was washing, there came by some rogues, who stole his clothes. This cunning cat had actually hidden the clothes under a big stone. The king commanded his guards to fetch one of his best suits for the Lord Marquis of Carabas.
The king was very pleased to finally meet the Marquis of Carabas. Although Miller’s son was poor, he was handsome and a well-built fellow, so that the king’s daughter fell in love with him. The king invited him to sit in the coach and ride along with them. The cat, felt overjoyed and marched on before, and as he met some countrymen, who were mowing a meadow, he said to them, “Good people, you who are mowing, if you do not tell the king that the meadow you mow belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas, those soldiers will chop you up like herbs for the pot.” The king asked the mowers to whom the meadow they were mowing belonged. “To my Lord Marquis of Carabas,” answered them altogether, for the cat’s threats had made them dreadfully afraid. “You see, sir, this is a meadow which never fails to yield a plentiful harvest every year,” said the Marquis amplifying the lies of the cat. Puss, who went still on before, met with some reapers, and told the same thing. So, when the king passed by and asked the reapers, they told that all of the corns belong to Lord Marquis of Carabas. Then, shockingly, the king said, “Let’s now go to your castle.” The miller’s son, not knowing what to reply, looked at puss who said, “If Your Majesty will but wait an hour, I will go on before and order the castle to be made ready for you.”
With that, he jumped away and went to the castle of a great ogre and asked to see him, saying he could not pass so near his home without having the honor of paying his respects to him. The ogre received him and made him sit down. “I have been assured,” said the cat, “that you have the gift of being able to change yourself into all sorts of creatures as you wish.” “That is true, you shall see me now become a lion,” answered the ogre vigorously. Puss was so terrified; however, he had a brilliant idea. “Though,” said the cat, “I fear that you will not be able to save yourself even in the form of a lion, for the king is coming with his army and means to destroy you.” The ogre looked out of the window and saw the king waiting outside with his soldiers, so he said, “What shall I do? How shall I save myself?” Puss replied, “If you change yourself into something very small, then you can hide.” In an instant, the ogre turned himself into a mouse and Puss immediately fell upon him and ate him up.
Puss, then, ran out and invited the king to visit the castle. “Does this castle also belong to you? There can be nothing finer than this court and all the stately buildings which surround it,” said the king to Marquis of Carabas. The Marquis gave his hand to the princess, and followed the king, who went first. They passed into a spacious hall, where they found a magnificent rum punch, which the ogre had prepared for his friends, who were that very day to visit him. The friends, however, did not dare to enter, knowing that the king was there. The king was perfectly charmed with the good qualities of Lord Marquis of Carabas, without waiting any longer, he said to him, “If you do not mind, my Lord Marquis, be my son in law!” The Marquis, making several low bows, accepted that honor and on that very same day, he married the princess. Puss finally became a great lord, and never ran after mice anymore, except for pleasure.
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