Once upon a time there was a Millers son who was very poor. One day he said to himself, “I am so poor I can’t feed myself let alone my cat. I will have to give him away”.

The cat, who heard the young man talking to himself, sat up and said, “Master, I think it is better if you don’t give me away; I shall be much more useful to you if you keep me.”

“And how is that?” asked his master.

“All you have to do is give me a sack and a pair of boots.”

Now, although the young miller did not really believe what the cat said, he had seen him show so much cleverness in catching mice, it seemed advisable to trust him just a little more.

When the cat got his boots, he put them on and throwing the sack over his shoulder, marched on to a nearby rabbit warren.

He put some lettuce leaves into the bag before stretching himself out beside it as if he were asleep.

Then he waited until a fat young rabbit looked into the sack ready to eat the lettuce. Quickly Master Puss closed the bag and took the fat rabbit away.

Very proud of his catch, he went to the palace and begged to speak with the king. He was taken to see his majesty, where, making a low bow, he said,

“Sir, here is a magnificent rabbit which belongs to my lord the Marquis of Carabas, which he has asked me to offer humbly to you.”

“Tell your master”, replied the king, “that I accept his present.”

The cat gave the rabbit to the king and left with a smile on his face.

Another time, Puss caught two fat partridges and presented them to the king, again with a similar message and his majesty was even more pleased than the first time. 

One day, hearing the king was planning to take a drive along the river with his daughter, the most beautiful princess in the world, Puss said to his master, “Sir, if you follow my advice, your fortune is made.”

“Okay,” said the miller’s son, “Tell me your advice.”

“All you have to do is go and swim in the river and leave the rest to me. Only remember, you are no longer yourself, but my lord the Marquis of Carabas.”

“Okay,” said the miller’s son and did as the cat asked.

While he was swimming, the king and the princess passed by and as they did, they heard loud cries of “Help, help! my lord the Marquis of Carabas is drowning.”

The king put his head out of the carriage and saw nobody but the cat, who had brought him so many presents in the past, he ordered his guards to run quickly to help his lord.

While they were pulling the unfortunate boy out of the water, the cat came up, bowing, at the side of the king’s carriage and told a sad story about some thieves who had taken his masters clothes when he was swimming.

“Oh, we will soon fix that,” said the king and immediately ordered one of his officers to bring the most elegant clothes for the young gentleman.

The new clothes fitted him so well that he looked as if he had been a marquis all his life and went over to the king to offer his thanks.

The king received him courteously, and the princess liked him a lot. Indeed, so much that she asked him to join them in the carriage.

The cat, delighted at the success of his scheme, ran away as fast as he could.

He ran on until he came to some peasants mowing in a meadow. “Good people,” said he, “the king is coming and if you do not say that the field you are mowing belongs to my lord the Marquis of Carabas, I shall get all the mice in the land to eat your crops.”

So, when the king drove by and asked whose meadow, it was, the mowers all answered that it belonged to my lord the Marquis of Carabas.

“You have very fine land,” said his majesty to the miller’s son, who answered casually “that it was not a bad meadow!”

They drove on and the same thing happened in field after field with the cat always running before them and saying to everybody, he met that they were to declare the whole country belonged to his master.

Finally, the cat arrived at a castle where a wicked Ogre lived who owned all the land through which the royal party had been driving.

Putting on the bravest face he could, Puss marched up to the castle and asked to see the Ogre who came to the door and asked him what he wanted.

“I was hoping you could satisfy a traveler’s curiosity,” said the cat. “I have heard how you have the power to change yourself into any sort of animal you choose a lion for instance.”

“That is true,” replied the Ogre; “and in case you doubt it, I will prove it by becoming a lion.”

And this he did, and the cat was so frightened that he jumped up onto the roof of the castle and stayed there until the Ogre had returned to his original form.

“But, sir,” said he, “it may be easy for such a big gentleman as you to change yourself into a large animal, but I do not think you can become a small one, say a mouse. I have heard it is quite impossible for you to do this.

“Impossible!” cried the Ogre, “You shall see!” and immediately the Ogre was gone and in his place was a little mouse running about on the floor.

This was exactly what Puss wanted and instantly did the most natural thing under the circumstances; he jumped on the mouse and gobbled it up in a second. And that was the end of the Ogre.

Just then the king arrived at the castle. The cat ran forward and standing at the gate said in a loud voice, “Welcome, sire, to the castle of my lord the Marquis of Carabas.”

“What!” cried his majesty, very much surprised, “does the castle also belong to you? Truly, Marquis, you have kept your secret well. I have never seen anything finer than this courtyard and castle.

The Marquis helped the Princess out of the carriage and, standing aside to let the king enter first he followed his majesty into the great hall where a magnificent feast was waiting for them.

Before the banquet was over the king, charmed with the good qualities of the Marquis of Carabas said to him, “It is up to you, Marquis, if you will become my son-in-law.” “I would be very happy to be” replied the Marquis, and the princess’s smile declared the same.

The very next day they were married and took possession of the Ogre’s castle, and everything that had belonged to him. And what about the cat? Well, he became a big shot in the Marquis’s land and never had to run after mice again, except when he wanted to!

The end

To watch the animated video of this Fairy Tale on the Oxbridge Baby YouTube Channel click here (please note these links take you to an external website).