There was once a miller who left, when he died, all that he had to his three sons. To the eldest he left the mill, and to the second the donkey, and to the youngest there was nothing left but the cat. The youngest son was downcast. “My brothers may make an honest living together,” he said, “but when I have eaten my cat and made a muff of his skin, I shall have to starve.”
The cat, who heard all this, said, “Do not look so glum, master. Only give me a bag, and a pair of boots to go through the brambles in, and you shall see that your share is not so poor as you think.” The young man had little enough to lose, and so he found the cat a bag and had a small pair of boots made for him; and the cat pulled them on, slung the bag over his shoulder, and set off looking very fine.
The cat went to a warren where there were many rabbits, and put some bran and greens in his bag, and lay still as though dead. Before long a young rabbit crept in, and the cat drew the strings and caught it. Then, proud as you please, he went to the king’s palace and asked to speak with the king. “My lord the Marquis of Carabas,” said the cat, bowing low, “sends you this rabbit as a gift.” For the cat had decided to give his master a grand-sounding name. The king was pleased, and thanked the Marquis of Carabas. And so the cat went on for weeks, bringing the king game of all kinds, always in the name of the Marquis of Carabas, till the king thought very well indeed of a nobleman he had never met.
One day the cat learned that the king was to drive along the river with his daughter, who was as beautiful as the day. He ran to his master. “Do exactly as I say,” he told him, “and your fortune is made. Go and bathe in the river at the spot I show you, and leave the rest to me.” The young man did as he was told, though he did not see the sense of it; and while he was in the water, the cat hid his shabby clothes, and when the king’s carriage came by, cried out, “Help! Help! My lord the Marquis of Carabas is drowning!” The king, recognising the cat that had brought him so many gifts, stopped at once and sent his servants to pull the young man out. And while they were about it, the cat told the king that robbers had stolen his master’s fine clothes; so the king sent for a splendid suit, and the miller’s son, well washed and well dressed, looked so handsome that the princess fell in love with him on the spot, and the king begged the Marquis to ride with them.
The cat ran on ahead. He came to a meadow where men were mowing, and said, “Good people, when the king asks whose meadow this is, say it belongs to the Marquis of Carabas.” And so, when the king passed and asked, the mowers answered as they had been told, and the king was much impressed with the Marquis’s lands. On the cat ran, telling everyone the same, so that all the fields and mills the king passed were said to belong to the Marquis of Carabas.
At last the cat came to a great castle, which belonged to an ogre, the richest and most terrible in all the land, and the true owner of all those fields. The cat, bold as brass, asked to see him, and said he had heard the ogre could change himself into any creature he liked. “That is true,” said the ogre, and to show off, he turned himself into a lion. The cat was so frightened he leapt onto the roof, boots and all. When the ogre changed back, the cat came down and said, “Marvellous. But surely a great ogre could not turn into something small, a mouse, say. That, I am sure, is beyond you.” “Beyond me?” roared the ogre. “Watch!” And he turned himself into a mouse and ran across the floor; and the cat pounced upon him and gobbled him up, and that was the end of the ogre.
When the king’s carriage arrived at the castle, the cat came out and bowed. “Welcome, your Majesty, to the castle of the Marquis of Carabas!” The king was astonished at so fine a castle, and the Marquis handed the princess down, and they all went in to a great feast that the ogre had, as it happened, prepared for friends who now dared not come. And before the day was out, the king, seeing the young man’s fine estates and fine manners, offered him the princess for his wife; and the miller’s son, who could scarcely believe his luck, married her that very week. And the cat became a great lord, and never had to chase a mouse again, except for his own amusement.
A small inheritance in clever hands may outdo a great one in foolish; for it is not what you are given, but what you make of it, that decides your fortune.