Puss in Boots

A miller died and left the mill to his eldest son, the donkey to the second, and the cat to the youngest. The youngest said he would eat the cat and make mittens out of what was left.

"You could," said the cat. "Or you could get me a bag and a pair of boots."

He never said why he wanted boots.

The cat caught rabbits and partridges and carried them to the palace, telling the king each time that they were a gift from his master, the Marquis de Carabas. There was no Marquis de Carabas. After three months the king was very keen to meet him.

Then the cat told his master to get into the river, hid his clothes, and shouted that the Marquis was drowning and had been robbed. The king lent him a suit. The princess looked at him twice.

The cat ran ahead and told the men in every field what to say, and they said it. At the end of the road stood a castle belonging to an ogre who could turn into any animal he liked. The cat admired the lion. Then he wondered aloud whether something small might be beyond him. The ogre turned into a mouse to prove a point, and left his own castle under the door, and did not come back.

The miller's son married the princess. The cat was made a lord and never chased a mouse again except for fun.

He never told his master what he had done, and his master never asked.