“Puss in Boots.” The Book of Fables and Folk Stories, Horace Elisha Scudder, Boston: Houghton Mifflin; 1919, pp. 20-27.

Tale Summary

Once upon a time, a poor miller died and was only able to leave to his three sons a mill, an ass, and a cat. The youngest was given the cat, and lamented that it did him no good, because all he could do with it was skin and eat it, but would starve soon after anyway. The cat heard these laments and told the fellow to give him boots and a bag, and this was done. Puss put on the boots and used the bag to catch a young rabbit, which he presented to the king, and told him it was a gift from his master the Marquis of Carabas. For some time it went on like this with Puss bringing game to the king as a gift, and the king began to think of the Marquis as a famous hunter. One day Puss heard that the king and his daughter would be going by the river, and ordered his master to bathe in the water and leave the rest to him. When the king and princess were driving by, the cat leapt out and cried that the Marquis of Carabas was drowning and needed help. Recognizing Puss, the king ordered his men to help, and the cat explained his lord had been swimming when robbers attacked him. The king ordered a fine suit for the Marquis, and now looking quite handsome, was invited to his carriage. Puss ran out ahead to a meadow where men were cutting the grass, and ordered them to tell the king when he came by that it all belonged to the Marquis of Carabas, or else they would be chopped as fine as mince-meat. The same he told to some reapers who were cutting grain, and when the king rode by, he and the princess were very impressed to hear that the Marquis owned all of the land. Puss came to a castle and learned it belonged to a monster, and so asked to pay the master his respects. Puss told the monster he heard of his shape-shifting abilities, and that he could even turn into a lion. To prove himself, the monster did this, and when he shifted back into his original shape, Puss told him that he also heard he could turn into a mouse but he didn’t believe it. The monster did this too, and the cat ate him up. When the king’s carriage arrived, Puss invited them to the castle of the Marquis of Carabas where there was a feast set out for the monster and his friends, who now dared not enter. The king was so impressed that he asked the young man to marry his daughter, and so the miller’s son became a prince, and Puss in Boots became a great lord.