m, he came down, and owned he had been
very much frightened.

"I have been, moreover, informed," said the Cat, "but I know not how to
believe it, that you have also the power to take on you the shape of the
smallest animals; for example, to change yourself into a rat or a mouse;
but I must own to you I take this to be impossible."

"Impossible!" cried the ogre; "you shall see that presently."

And at the same time he changed himself into a mouse, and began to run
about the floor. Puss no sooner perceived this but he fell upon him and
ate him up.

Meanwhile the King, who saw, as he passed, this fine castle of the
ogre's, had a mind to go into it. Puss, who heard the noise of his
Majesty's coach running over the draw-bridge, ran out, and said to the
King:

"Your Majesty is welcome to this castle of my Lord Marquis of Carabas."

"What! my Lord Marquis," cried the King, "and does this castle also
belong to you? There can be nothing finer than this court and all the
stately buildings which surround it; let us go into it, if you please."

The Marquis gave his hand to the Princess, and followed the King,
who went first. They passed into a spacious hall, where they found a
magnificent collation, which the ogre had prepared for his friends, who
were that very day to visit him, but dared not to enter, knowing
the King was there. His Majesty was perfectly charmed with the good
qualities of my Lord Marquis of Carabas, as was his daughter, who
had fallen violently in love with him, and, seeing the vast estate he
possessed, said to him, after having drunk five or six glasses:

"It will be owing to yourself only, my Lord Marquis, if you are not my
son-in-law."

The Marquis, making several low bows, accepted the honor which his
Majesty conferred upon him, and forthwith, that very same day, married
the Princess.

Puss became a great lord, and never ran after mice any more but only for
his diversion.(1)

(1) Charles Perrault.

FELICIA AND THE POT OF PINKS

Once upon a time there was a poor laborer who, feeling that he had not
much longer to live, wished to divide his possessions between his son
and daughter, whom he loved dearly.

So he called them to him, and said: "Your mother brought me as her dowry
two stools and a straw bed; I have, besides, a hen, a pot of pinks, and
a silver ring, which were given me by a noble lady who once lodged in my
poor cottage. When she went away she said to me:

"'Be careful o