Puss In Boots

: NURSEY STORIES
: Popular Rhymes And Nursery Tales

[One of the tales of Perrault, 1697. The plot was taken from the first

novel of the eleventh night of Straparola. Its moral is that talents are

equivalent to fortune. We have inserted this in our collection, although

generally remembered, as a specimen of the simple tales founded by

Perrault on older stories, and which soon became popular in this

country. The others, as Blue Beard, and Little Riding Hood, are

vanishing
from the nursery, but are so universally known that reprints

of them would be superfluous.]



There was a miller, who left no more estate to his three sons than his

mill, his ass, and his cat. The partition was soon made, neither

scrivener nor attorney being sent for. They would soon have eaten up all

the patrimony. The eldest had the mill, the second the ass, and the

youngest nothing but the cat.



The poor young fellow was quite downcast at so poor a lot. "My

brothers," said he, "may get their living handsomely enough by joining

their stocks together, but for my part, when I have eaten up my cat, and

made me a muff of his skin, I must die with hunger." The cat, who heard

all this, yet made as if he did not, said to him, with a grave and

serious air, "Do not thus afflict yourself, my good master; you have

nothing else to do but give me a bag, and get a pair of boots made for

me, that I may scamper through the dirt and the brambles, and you shall

see that you have not so bad a portion as you imagine." Though he did

not build very much upon what the cat said, he had however often seen

him play a great many cunning tricks to catch rats and mice: as when he

used to hang by the heels, or hide himself in the meal, and make as if

he were dead; so that he did not altogether despair of his affording him

some help in his miserable condition. When the cat had what he asked

for, he booted himself very gallantly; and putting the bag about his

neck, held the strings of it in his two fore paws, and went into a

warren where there was a great abundance of rabbits. He put bran and

sow-thistles into the bag, and stretching himself out at length, as if

he had been dead, he waited for some young rabbits not yet acquainted

with the deceits of the world, to come and rummage his bag for what he

had put into it.



Scarce was he laid down, but he had what he wanted; a rash and foolish

young rabbit jumped into his bag, and Monsieur Puss immediately drawing

the strings close, took and killed him without pity. Proud of his prey,

he went with it into the palace, and asked to speak with his majesty. He

was shown upstairs into the king's apartment, and, making a low

reverence, said to him, "I have brought you, Sire, a rabbit of the

warren, which my noble lord, the Marquis of Carabas (for that was the

title which Puss was pleased to give his master), has commanded me to

present to your majesty from him." "Tell thy master," said the king,

"that I thank him, and he does me a great deal of pleasure."



Another time he went and hid himself amongst some standing corn, holding

his bag open; and when a brace of partridges ran into it, he drew the

strings, and so caught them both. He went and made a present of these to

the king, as he had done before of the rabbit. The king received the

partridges with great pleasure, and ordered him some money for drink.



The cat continued, for two or three months, to carry game to his

majesty. One day in particular, when he knew that the king was to take

the air along the river side, with his daughter, the most beautiful

princess in the world, he said to his master, "If you will follow my

advice, your fortune is made; you have nothing else to do, but go and

wash yourself in the river, in that part I shall show you, and leave the

rest to me." The Marquis of Carabas did what the cat advised, without

knowing why or wherefore.



While he was washing, the king passed by, and the cat began to cry out,

as loud as he could, "Help, help! my Lord Marquis of Carabas is going to

be drowned!" At this noise the king put his head out of the

coach-window, and finding it was the cat who had so often brought him

such good game, he commanded the guards to run immediately to the

assistance of his lordship, the Marquis of Carabas.



While they were drawing the poor marquis out of the river, the cat came

up to the coach and told the king, that, while his master was washing,

there came by some rogues who went off with his clothes, though he had

cried out, "Thieves! thieves!" several times, as loud as he could. This

cunning cat had hidden them under a great stone. The king immediately

commanded the officers of his wardrobe to run and fetch one of his best

suits for the Lord Marquis of Carabas.



The king caressed him after a very extraordinary manner, and as the fine

clothes he had given him extremely set off his good mien (for he was

well-made and very handsome in his person), the king's daughter took a

secret inclination to him, and the Marquis of Carabas had no sooner cast

two or three respectful and tender glances, but she fell in love with

him to distraction; and the king would have him come into his coach. The

cat, overjoyed to see his project begin to succeed, marched on before,

and meeting with some countrymen who were mowing a meadow, he said to

them, "Good people, if you do not tell the king that the meadow you mow

belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped as small as

herbs for the pot."



The king did not fail to ask the mowers to whom the meadow they were

mowing belonged. "To my Lord Marquis of Carabas," answered they all

together; for the cat's threats had made them terribly afraid. "You see,

sir," said the marquis, "this is a meadow that never fails to yield a

plentiful harvest every year." The cat, who still went on before, met

with some reapers, and said to them, "Good people, you who are reaping,

if you do not tell the king that all this corn belongs to the Marquis

of Carabas, you shall be chopped as small as herbs for the pot." The

king, who passed by a moment after, would needs know to whom all that

corn did belong. "To my Lord Marquis of Carabas," replied the reapers;

and the king was very well pleased with it, as well as the marquis, whom

he congratulated thereupon. The master cat went always before, saying

the same words to all he met; and the king was astonished at the vast

estates of my Lord Marquis of Carabas. Monsieur Puss came at last to a

stately castle, the master of which was an ogre, the richest that had

ever been known; for all the lands the king had then gone over belonged

to him; the cat, having taken care to inform himself who this ogre was,

and what he could do, asked to speak to him, saying, "He could not pass

so near his castle, without having the honour of paying his respects to

him."



The ogre received him as civilly as an ogre could do, 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 you have a

mind to; you can, for example, transform yourself into a lion or

elephant, and the like." "This is true," answered the ogre, very briskly,

"and to convince you, you shall see me now become a lion." Puss was so

sadly terrified at the sight of a lion so near him, that he immediately

got into the gutter, not without great trouble and danger, because of

his boots, which were of no use at all to him in walking upon the tiles.

A little while after, when Puss saw that the ogre had resumed his

natural form, he came down, and owned that he had been very much

frightened.



"I have been moreover informed," said the cat, "but I know not how to

believe it, that you have also the power to take upon you the smallest

animals, for example, to change yourself into a rat or a mouse, but I

must own to you, I take this to be impossible." "Impossible!" cried the

ogre, "you shall see that presently;" and at the same time changed

himself into a mouse, and began to run about the floor. Puss no sooner

perceived this, but he fell upon him, and eat him up.



Meanwhile the king, who saw as he passed this fine castle of the ogre's,

had a mind to go into it. Puss, who heard the noise of his majesty's

coach running over the drawbridge, ran out, and said to the king, "Your

majesty is welcome to this castle of the Lord Marquis of Carabas."

"What! my lord marquis," cried the king, "and does this castle also

belong to you? there can be nothing finer than this court, and all the

stately buildings which surround it: let us go into it, if you please."



The king went up first, the marquis, handing the princess, following;

they passed into a spacious hall, where they found a magnificent

collation the ogre had prepared for his friends, who dared not enter,

knowing the king was there. His majesty was perfectly charmed with the

good qualities of the marquis, and his daughter was violently in love

with him. The king, after having drank five or six glasses, said to him,

"My lord marquis, you will be only to blame, if you are not my

son-in-law." The marquis, making several low bows, accepted the honour

his majesty conferred upon him, and forthwith the very same day married

the princess.



Puss became a great lord, and never ran after mice any more but only for

his diversion.



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