Did you ever have something that you thought wasn't going to be very good before you tried it,
but then, after you tried it, it turned out to be better than you ever imagined?
That's what happens to a young man,
when he underestimates his new cat, in this Read Aloud with Mr. Paul.
Welcome to Read Aloud with Mr. Paul. I'm so glad you could be here. Today we're reading a
story called Puss in Boots. It was first written down in 1697 by Charles Perrault. This version
is illustrated by Fred Marcelino. Notice the front cover—there's no title on it at all,
there's just an illustration. Well, the publishers—the makers of the book—knew
that Puss in Boots is such a famous character that an illustration of just his face would be enough
to tell the audience what this book was about. Instead, they put the title on the back cover.
See? It says Puss in Boots, a tale by Charles Perrault, illustrated by Fred Marcelino. And
the front and back cover together make a giant illustration. I think that's very inventive.
Here's our title page: Puss in Boots, illustrated by Fred Marcelino,
translated by Malcolm Arthur. Charles Perrault wrote the story in French,
and Malcolm Arthur translated it into English—changed the language for us. There's
an illustration here, by the title page, that shows us the story takes place in olden times,
when machines look different than they do today. Also, this illustration is set inside of a mill.
A miller had three sons, and when he died he left them nothing but his mill, his donkey,
and his cat. The sons didn't send for a lawyer, because they knew their whole legacy would have
gone for fees. But it didn't take them long to decide who should get what. The eldest got
the mill, the second got the donkey, and nothing was left for the youngest but the cat. He wasn't
very happy about it. "My brothers will be able to work together and make a decent living," he
said. "But once I've eaten my cat and made a muff out of the fur, I'm sure to starve."
The cat, who had been listening while pretending not to, said with a serious, sympathetic look:
"Don't worry, master, just get me a sack and a pair of boots to carry me through the brambles,
and you'll see is that you haven't come out as badly as you think."
The cat's master was not exactly convinced, but then he remembered that he had seen the
cat do some very clever things, such as catching rats and mice by hanging by his paws or hiding
in the flour and playing dead. So he said to himself: "Oh well, why not give it a try?"
When Puss had got what he asked for, he pulled on his fine boots,
threw the sack over his shoulder, and, holding the strings between his forepaws,
went out to a warren where there were lots of rabbits.
He put bran and sow thistle in the sack, and waited for some young rabbit who
hadn't caught on to the ruses of this world to poke his nose into the sack.
No sooner had he settled himself than a harebrained young rabbit walked right in.
Puss pulled the strings tight and killed the rabbit without mercy or compassion.
Proud of his kill he went straight to the Royal Palace and asked to see the King.
They showed him into His Majesty's apartments, where he bowed low and said,
"Sire, I've brought you a wild rabbit which the Marquis of Carabas"—that was the name
Puss had decided to give his master—"has bidden me offer you with his compliments."
"Tell your master, said the King,
"that his gift has given me great pleasure and that I thank him kindly."
The next time Puss went out with his sack, he hid in a wheat field. When two
partridges walked into the sack, he pulled the strings and caught them both. The King
accepted the two partridges gladly and told his servants to reward the cat for his pains.
For two or three months, Puss went on bringing the king game from his master's preserve.
Then one day, when he knew the King would be going for a ride along the
river with his daughter, who was the most beautiful Princess in the whole world,
Puss said to his master: "Do as I say, and your fortune is made. Just go for
a swim in the river—I'll show you the exact spot—and leave the rest to me."
The Marquis of Carabas followed Puss's instructions to the letter,
though he couldn't imagine what good it would do him. While he was swimming, the King passed by
and Puss shouted with all his might: "Help! Help! The Marquis of Carabas is drowning!"
Hearing the shouts, the King stuck his head out of the carriage door
and recognized the cat who had brought him so much game. "Hurry!" he called
out to his guards. "Hurry to the rescue of the Marquis of Carabas!"
While the poor Marquis was being pulled out of
the river, Puss went over to the carriage and spoke to the King.
"While my master was swimming," he said, "some thieves came and made off with his clothes, even
though I yelled 'Stop, thief!' at the top of my voice." The rascal had hidden them under a stone.
The King ordered the officers of the wardrobe to fetch one of his finest suits for the Marquis of
Carabas. Once the Marquis had changed, the King made a great fuss over him;
and since the fine clothes brought out his good looks, the King's daughter took a liking to him,
too. The Marquis gave her two or three tender glances, and before you knew it she had fallen
in love with him. The King proposed that he joined them in the carriage for a drive.
Delighted that his plan was turning out so well, Puss went on ahead. When he saw
some peasants mowing a meadow, he said to them: "Friends, I want you to tell the King that this
meadow belongs to the Marquis of Carabas. If you don't, you'll be cut up as small as sausage meat."
When the King came along, he asked the mowers who owned the meadow they
were mowing. Puss's threat had scared them out of their wits,
and they answered in unison: "The Marquis of Carabas owns it."
"A fine meadow you've got there," said the King to the Marquis.
"Yes indeed, Sire," said the Marquis. "Year in, year out, it yields a goodly crop."
Puss, who was still going on ahead, saw some harvesters and said to them:
"I want you to say that all this wheat belongs to
the Marquis of Carabas. If you don't, you'll be cut up into sausage meat."
The King, who came along a few moments later,
wanted to know who owned all the wheat he was looking at.
"The Marquis of Carabas," said the harvesters, and again the King was well pleased with the
Marquis. Puss, who was going on ahead of the carriage, kept saying the same
thing to all the people he met. And the King marveled at the size of the Marquis's estates.
At last Puss came to a beautiful castle that belonged to an Ogre. He was the richest Ogre
in the world, for all the lands the King had passed through belonged to him. Puss, who had
been careful to find out all about this Ogre, went into the castle and asked leave to call on
him. "What a pity it would be," he said, "to be so near his castle and not stop and pay my respects."
The Ogre welcomed him as affably as an Ogre can,
and bade him be seated. "I've been told," said Puss, "that you can turn yourself
into any animal you please. A lion, for instance, or even on elephant."
"That is true," said the Ogre, "and to prove it I'll turn myself into a lion."
Puss was so terrified at seeing a lion right there in the room that he scrambled up onto the roof,
which wasn't easy, because boots are no good for walking on tiles,
and it was dangerous besides. A little later, when Puss saw that the Ogre was an Ogre again,
he came down and admitted that the lion had given him a bad scare.
When he'd caught his breath, Puss said: "I hear you can turn yourself into small
animals, too, a rat or a mouse for instance. That seems impossible."
"It seems impossible, does it?" said the Ogre. A second later the Ogre was gone and
a mouse was scurrying across the floor. Puss pounced and caught him and gobbled him up.
Just then the King came to the beautiful castle, and of course he wanted to go in.
When Puss heard the sound of the carriage rumbling over the drawbridge, he ran out to
meet the King. "Welcome, Your Majesty," he said, "to the Marquis of Carabas's castle."
"My dear Marquis," cried the King. "Is it possible that this castle is yours, too? What could be
more beautiful than this courtyard and all these buildings around it. Let's have a look inside."
The Marquis gave the young Princess his hand, the King led the way, and all went in.
In the great hall they found a banquet that the Ogre had ordered for his friends. These
friends had just arrived, but when they saw the King's carriage, they ran away. The king
was charmed by the Marquis's manners and estates, and the King's daughter
had favored him from the first. So after five or six beakers of wine, the King said to him:
"You have only to say the word, my dear Marquis, and I'll take you for my son-in-law."
The Marquis said the word with a low, elaborate bow and married the Princess that same day.
Puss became a great lord and gave up chasing mice, except just once in a while, for the fun of it.
What do we notice about this story?
First I notice that the miller's youngest son is worried that all the good things his father had
have gone to his older brothers—the mill and the donkey. He knows that those things together can be
used to run the mill and keep the family business going. All he's left is a cat, and a cat is small,
and a cat can't lift very much, and can't do work like a donkey. It doesn't seem like a very useful
thing to have, but he underestimates the value of the cat. The cat isn't strong like a donkey,
the cat isn't powerful like a mill, but the cat is clever. The cat is a trickster. The cat is smart,
and the cat uses his cleverness, uses his smarts to trick his way into a better life for his
master. So the story tells us not to underestimate the value of something based on its appearance.
I also notice that Puss behaves in a way that seems believable, like a real cat would behave.
He takes the rabbit and he takes the pheasants, and he drags them to the king and presents them
as gifts. Well, if you've had a cat and you live in the countryside, you know that cats love to hunt,
and when they catch a mouse, or they catch a bird, they will drag that dead mouse or dead bird home
and present it to its owner as a gift. So that's realistic—cats really do behave like that—and
I think it's safe to say that if a cat was a person, it would probably behave in a tricky way,
in a clever way, like Puss does in the story, so that's good writing—when the characters behave in
a way that's believable. And part of Puss's character is that he's not always honest,
and some of the things he does are not nice things: he threatens those people in the country,
telling them to say the land belongs to the Marquis or they'll be cut up into sausage meat,
and he terrifies them. It's not a nice thing to do, but he's doing it for his master,
so we forgive him. He tricks the ogre into turning into a mouse, and then he kills the ogre, so he
can get the castle—also not a nice thing to do, but because ogres are usually bad characters in
fairy tales, and because he's doing it to help his master, again we don't mind so much. We let that
go. We forgive him. Puss is a character who does bad things sometimes, but we like him anyway. We
call that kind of a character a "lovable rogue." Puss in Boots is definitely a lovable rogue.
Thank you so much for joining me for Read Aloud with Mr. Paul. Until next
time, discover the wonder in a book—pick one up, take a look!
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