Сергей Александрович Матвеев, В. В. Ганненко - Английские сказки для мальчиков / English Fairy Tales for Boys

There was a miller whose only inheritance to his three sons was his mill, his donkey, and his cat. The division was soon made. The eldest took the mill, the second the donkey, and the youngest took the cat.

The poor young fellow was quite comfortless because he received so little. “My brothers,” said he, “may make a handsome living by joining their shares together, but for my part, after I have eaten up my cat and made myself a muff from his skin, I must then die of hunger.”

The cat, who heard all this but pretended otherwise, said to him serious, “Do not be so concerned, my good master. If you will give me a bag and have a pair of boots made for me that I may scamper through the dirt and the brambles, then you shall see that you are not so poorly off with me as you imagine.”

The cat’s master did not believe him very much. However, he had often seen him play a great many cunning tricks to catch rats and mice,[1] such as hanging by his heels or hiding himself in the meal and pretending to be dead, so he did take some hope that he might give him some help in his miserable condition.[2]

After receiving what he had asked for, the cat gallantly pulled on the boots and slung the bag about his neck. Holding its drawstrings in his forepaws,[3] he went to a place where there were a lot of rabbits. He put some bran and greens into his bag, then laid down as if he were dead. He waited for some young rabbits to come and look into his bag.

Soon, a rash and foolish young rabbit jumped into his bag, and the master cat immediately closed the strings, then took and killed him without pity.[4]

Proud of his prey, he went with it to the palace, and asked to speak with his majesty. He was shown upstairs into the king’s apartment[5] and, making a low bow,[6] said to him, “Sir, I have brought you a rabbit from my noble lord,[7] the Master of Carabas” (for that was the title which the cat was pleased to give his master).

“Tell your master,” said the king, “that I thank him and that I am very pleased with his gift.”

Another time he went and hid himself in a grain field. He again held his bag open, and when a brace of partridges[8] ran into it, he drew the strings and caught them both. He presented these to the king, as he had done before with the rabbit. The king received the partridges with great pleasure and gave him a tip. The cat continued, from time to time[9] for two or three months, to take game[10] to his majesty from his master.

One day, when he knew for certain[11] that the king would be taking a drive along the riverside with his daughter, the most beautiful princess in the world, he said to his master, “If you follow my advice, your fortune is made. All you must do is to go and bathe yourself in the river at the place I show you, then leave the rest to me.”

The Marquis of Carabas did what the cat advised him to, without knowing why.[12] While he was bathing, the king passed by in his coach, and the cat began to cry out, “Help! Help! My Lord Marquis of Carabas is going to be drowned.”

At this noise, the king put his head out of the coach window and saw that it was the cat who had so often brought him such good game, so he commanded his guards to help the Marquis of Carabas. While they were drawing the poor Marquis out of the river, the cat came up to the coach and told the king that while his master was bathing, some rogues had stolen his clothes, even though he had cried out, “Thieves! Thieves!” several times as loud as he could.[13] In truth, the cunning cat had hidden the clothes under a large stone.

The king immediately commanded the officers of his wardrobe to run and fetch one of his best suits for the Lord Marquis of Carabas.

The king received him very courteously.[14] And because the king’s fine clothes gave him a striking appearance (for[15] he was very handsome and well proportioned), the king’s daughter took a secret inclination to him. The Marquis of Carabas had only to look at her a couple of times, and she fell head over heels in love with him.[16] The king asked him to enter the coach and join them.

The cat ran on ahead.[17] Meeting some countrymen who were mowing a meadow,[18] he said to them, “My good fellows, if you do not tell the king that the meadow you are mowing belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped up like mincemeat.[19]”

The king asked the mowers whose meadow it was that they were mowing.

“It belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas,” they answered altogether because the cat had frightened them.

“You see, sir,” said the Marquis, “this is a meadow which always yield a plentiful harvest every year.”

The master cat, still running on ahead, met with some reapers and said to them, “My good fellows, if you do not tell the king that all this grain belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped up like mincemeat.”

The king, who passed by a moment later, asked them whose grain it was that they were reaping.

“It belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas,” replied the reapers, which pleased both the king and the marquis. The king congratulated him for his fine harvest. The master cat continued to run ahead and said the same words to all he met. The king was surprised at the big estates of the Lord Marquis of Carabas.

The master cat came at last to a castle, the lord of which was an ogre, the richest that had ever been known.[20] All the lands which the king had just passed by belonged to this castle. The cat, who found out who this ogre was and what he could do, asked to speak with him, saying he could not pass so near his castle without having the honor of paying his respects to him.

The ogre received him as civilly as an ogre could do and invited him to sit down. “I have heard,” said the cat, “that you are able to change yourself into any kind of creature. You can, for example, transform yourself into a lion, an elephant, or the like.”

“That is true,” answered the ogre, “and to convince you, I shall now become a lion.”

The cat was so terrified to see a lion so near him that he leaped onto the roof, that was even more difficult for him because his boots didn’t help him to walk on the tiles. However, the ogre resumed his natural form, and the cat came down, saying that he had been very frightened indeed.