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Cinderella
Once upon a time, there lived a gentleman[1], who after his beautiful and kind wife died, married the proudest and meanest woman in all the land[2].
She had two daughters from a previous marriage who were just as nasty and haughty as their mother.
The gentleman also had a young daughter by another wife[3] named Cinderella, who was one of the sweetest girls in the kingdom.
Cinderella’s stepmother was extremely jealous of her beauty and charm and made her do[4] the hardest and most dreadful work in the house.
Cinderella did the dishes[5], scrubbed the floor and made the beds[6] while her stepsisters rested in their beds or had fun playing dress-up.
Now, it so happened that the King’s son decided to give a ball, inviting all the young ladies in the land to attend.
Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters were delighted and would talk of nothing but the ball all day long. They sent for the greatest designers in the kingdom to ensure that they looked their best[7].
Cinderella offered to help them get ready for the ball, for she had excellent taste, and despite how her stepsisters treated her, she always gave them the best advice.
As she helped them, the eldest sister asked, “Cinderella, are you not going to the ball?”
Cinderella sadly lowered her head and said, “No, you’re only teasing me because I have nothing to wear for the ball. Perhaps I could borrow something?”
“Lend our clothes to such a dirty Cinderwench[8]? We’re not fools!” And the sisters laughed cruelly.
When the big day finally came, Cinderella accompanied her stepmother and stepsisters to the Court and couldn’t help but burst into tears as she watched them enter the beautiful ball[9].
As she wept, Cinderella’s fairy godmother appeared.
“Cinderella, why are you crying?” she asked.
“You wish to attend the ball, is that not so?”
“Yes,” cried Cinderella, between sobs.
The fairy godmother smiled and said, “Well, run into the garden and bring me a pumpkin.”
Cinderella immediately went to get the finest pumpkin she could find.
When she brought it, her godmother struck the pumpkin with her wand, instantly turning it into a fine coach plated with gold and silver.
Next, she had Cinderella find some mice[10], and when she brought the furry little creatures back, the fairy godmother tapped them each with her wand, turning[11] them into six fine horses and a coachman.
“Well, what do you say? Do you still think you are not able to attend the ball?” asked her godmother.
“Oh yes!” cried Cinderella, “but should I go looking like this, in these rags?[12]”
Her godmother only touched her with her wand, and instantly Cinderella’s rags turned into a dress of white and silver, sparkling with jewels.
To top it off[13], fairy godmother gave Cinderella a pair of glass slippers[14], the prettiest in the whole world.
“The spell only lasts until midnight, so promise you will leave the ball before then,” said the Godmother.
Cinderella promised to return before midnight, thanked her again, and drove off to the ball.
When Cinderella entered the castle, the dancing and music stopped as everyone turned to gaze at her beauty.
No one recognized her; she was a complete mystery.
The Prince rushed up to greet her, led her to the most honorable seat, and later took her out for a dance[15].
Cinderella even made time to approach her step-sisters, who still did not recognize her, and shared some of the oranges the prince had presented to her as a gift.
The Prince never left her side[16], and Cinderella was enjoying herself so much that she completely forgot the time!
When the clock struck midnight, Cinderella was shocked and ran away immediately, leaving one of her glass slippers behind in haste.
The Prince ran to follow her, but only managed to pick up the glass slipper she left behind.
Cinderella managed to get home[17] but was quite out of breath[18] and in her dirty old clothes.
She was resting in bed when her two stepsisters suddenly entered her room.
“You stayed really late![19]” cried Cinderella, rubbing her eyes and stretching as if she had been sleeping.
“If you had been there, you would have seen the most beautiful princess[20],” exclaimed the eldest sister, “she was so nice to us and had the undivided attention of the Prince.”
“Her background is a mystery, and the Prince would give anything to know who she was[21],” said the youngest.
A few days later, the Prince declared that he would marry the woman whose foot fit in the slipper.
His soldiers began to try the slipper on all the princesses and duchesses in the Court, but it was all in vain.
A little later, the slipper was brought to the two sisters, who tried with all their might to make the slipper fit[22].
Cinderella, who saw this, politely asked to try it.
Her sisters burst out laughing[23] at the idea, but the Prince ordered that everyone in the kingdom should have a try.
When Cinderella’s foot slid perfectly into the slipper[24], her sisters were astonished.
Cinderella’s fairy godmother appeared and with the flick of her wand turned Cinderella into the beautiful girl from the ball.
The step-sisters dropped to their knees and begged for forgiveness for the awful way they treated her over the years[25].
Cinderella lifted them up and embraced them, saying she forgave them with all her heart.
Cinderella was then escorted to the Prince, dressed as beautiful as she was at the ball.
A few days later they were married.
Cinderella, who was very kind, gave her two sisters rooms in the palace, and everyone lived happily ever after.
Puss in Boots
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[26], 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[27].
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[28], 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[29].
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 [30]and, making a low bow[31], said to him, “Sir, I have brought you a rabbit from my noble lord[32], the Master of Carabas” (for that was the h2 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[33] 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[34] for two or three months, to take game[35] to his majesty from his master.
One day, when he knew for certain[36] 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[37]. 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. In truth, the cunning cat had hidden the clothes under a large stone.[38]
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[39]. And because the king’s fine clothes gave him a striking appearance (for[40] 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[41]. The king asked him to enter the coach and join them.
The cat ran on ahead[42]. Meeting some countrymen who were mowing a meadow[43], 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[44].”
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