Puss in Boots

 

Once there was a man who owned a mill. He lived with his three sons. One day, he fell terribly sick. He was almost certainly on his deathbed. Sure enough, over a week later, he died. He left his mill to his first son. He also left his donkey to his second son. But what he left for his third son was much less satisfactory. He left his third son his cat.

 The third son was miserable. His brothers could make money with what was left to them, but he could not earn any money without selling the cat, which was all he had. Suddenly, the cat spoke. ‘Master, can I have some boots and a bag?’ it asked. The boy asked for some money from his brothers, and they gave him just enough to buy what the cat had asked for. He gave them to the cat. It put on the boots and took the bag. 

He managed to catch a rabbit with it. The cat took the rabbit to the king. ‘Here is a gift from my master.’ it said. ‘Thank you, and who is your master?’ said the king. ‘The Marquis of Carrabas’ it said. Soon after, the cat did the same thing with a couple of partridges.

 Not long after that, the cat and his master were sitting by a river. The cat spotted the King’s carriage coming along the road. It noticed that the king and the princess were inside. The cat suddenly told the boy to take off his clothes and jump into the river. The boy thought this might be foolish, but he did as the cat told him anyway. When he was in the river the cat ran to the carriage and told them that some thieves had taken his master’s clothes and thrown him into the water. The king believed the cat and helped the boy. He wanted to take the boy home. The cat told the men where to go and ran along in front. 

 It met some men who were doing some farm work. He asked them who owned these fields. They told it that an ogre owned these fields. They also told it that the ogre lived in a castle. They also told it that the ogre who lived in the castle could turn into animals at will. He then told them that they would be killed if they did not tell the king, who was coming in his carriage, that they worked for the Marquis of Carrabas. 

 They took the cat seriously. When the king arrived, they told him that they worked for the Marquis of Carrabas. The cat ran to the castle and knocked on the door. When the ogre came to the door, the cat asked him if it could come in. The ogre wanted to eat the cat, so he let it come in. ‘I have heard that you can turn into an animal of your choice when you want to.’ said the cat. 

‘Just look’ roared the ogre, turning into a lion. ‘You can turn into a lion, but the lion you turn into is just as big as you are in your normal form!’ it said. ‘Prove that you can change your size by turning into a mouse!’ The ogre was big but stupid, so it turned into a mouse, forgetting that cats ate mice. The cat leaped onto the mouse and killed it. Just then, it heard a knock on the door. When he opened the door, it saw the king, the princess and his master standing outside. It told the king that this was the castle of the Marquis of Carrabas. Soon, the princess and the boy were married and lived at the castle. So the boy, the princess and Puss in boots, as he was now called, lived happily ever after.