His mother was adorable and his father was adorable, but Puss in Boots was more adorable than the two of them put together. By the time he toddled, he could make his eyes as big as plates. Any person stupid enough to stare for too long got convulsions and had to be hospitalized.

One day, his parents purred things over and decided it was time their little darling was out in the world doing his own begging. So they licked him goodbye and Puss left the alley he'd been born in.

It delighted him to see the flowers bend aside and trees lean away to let him go by.

On the second day of his journey, he came across an alligator-witch. Puss had never seen an alligator-witch. Though all sights engaged his interest, he wasn't sure he liked this particular one.

She was frivolously frying frogs in frittesaus, and as she fried, she sighed:

"This is the way I fry my frogs, amend my amphibians, taste my toads

Roast my frogs in the morning;

Stew and brew and chew my frogs. Boggle and toggle and moggle my frogs. Early in the morning."

The witch had several cats, which she had raised from kittenhood, but one look at Puss made her woozy.

"Well, hello, there, pussycat," said the witch once she regained her senses. "Do you know where you're going going?"

"Not at all," said Puss with a laugh. "I'm going wherever my fortune tells me to go."

"And would you like to know your fortune?" the witch asked, adjusting the fringes of her shawl. "I can see the future just as clearly as the present and more clearly than I can recall the past. For twenty-five cents I'll reveal your immediate prospects- what is in store for you during the next few days. For half a dollar I'll describe the next full year of your life. For a dollar you can have your complete history, unexpurgated, from now to the finish."

Puss pondered for a moment. "I would, but please don't spoil the ending," he replied. "I like to be surprised."

And the witch crooned:

"Hocus pocus, Merlin's hat, pay attention, pussycat.

A horse takes you to a knight

Him you conquer in a fight

Then you slay a dragon who

Is even fiercer than you

Ha ha ha and apple strudel

The magic word is cockadoodle"

"A dragon!" Puss cried. "I'm on my way!"

Along the way, Puss came across a person singing scything.

"You there, person," said Puss. "Why so blithe?"

And the yokel yodeled this reply:

"I'm happy scything in the meadow

I never stop to go to bed

O, hone and scythe until I die

But now I'm busy, so goodbye"

"Person," said Puss. "What have you in that pouch of yours?"

"Just some veal."

Puss was appalled. How could he be speaking to a pussycat, and not feel aversion toward the slaughter of calves? How were calves any different from pussycats?

"Veal? What a vicious, vile savage you are, not caring how baby cows feel!"

But the pheasant had been so focused on his work, that he did not realize who he had been talking to until he turned his head to reply. The pheasant, overwhelmed by the adorable animal, fainted.

Later that afternoon, a terrible storm ensued, and Puss took shelter in a shady copse. In the center, there stood a stone with a sword stuck in deeply. He wondered if he could pull it out. So he grabbed it with both paws and pulled with all his might, pushing his feet onto the stone for extra force. After a few minutes, he gave up. "Not as easy as it looks, is it?" he heard a hollow, high-pitched voice say. An owl with a long, white beard and a pointy blue hat with stars all over it descended to a branch where he could see it.

"Who are you?"

"I am a wizard," replied the owl. "And I've tried many spells to try and get that sword out of the stone, but none of them have succeeded."

"How about 'Cockadoodle'?" said Puss.

"What?" said the owl.

"Just try it," said Puss.

So the owl shouted at the top of his lungs, " !"

And the sword bounced out of the stone! Puss thanked the wizard and then wielded the weapon while waiting for the storm to clear.

When the sun came out, he greeted it warmly before continuing his journey.

Puss was wondering if he'd ever meet his dragon when he came upon a sleeping horse. Was this the horse the witch had foretold? Puss strode over and, with his free hand, tapped him on the shoulder. No response. Puss removed his right boot and pulled out out a carrot, then held it near the horse's snout. The horse opened his eyes and sniffed it, then began to gobble it down.

"Why, hello, little fellow," said the horse after he had finished the carrot. "Thanks for snack. I don't want to be late for supper, so now I'm heading back."

"Wait!" cried Puss.

The horse stopped and turned his head toward him.

"Aren't you supposed to take me somewhere?"

"Is your name Puss in Boots?"

"Yes, that's me!"

"Why, I am. To Lucifer the Legendary. Who guards the gate. To the castle where your princess awaits."

"A princess!" said Puss. "It's my true love!"

And he hopped onto the horse's back. When they got to the castle, there was a knight guarding the entrance.

The horse's eyes widened. But Puss knew he could take on Lucifer the Legendary. First, he distracted Lucifer with a look of misery. Then, he lunged at his thigh and grabbed fiercely with his claws. Lucifer tried to shake the kitty off, but he clung tightly. Lucifer then tried to grab him, but he was too fast for the legendary knight. Puss then managed, somehow, to get into his armor. The knight screamed and ran around until Puss emerged from the suit's neck, holding the helmet in both paws. He then jumped out and the knight's head popped out where Puss's had been. The stultified knight jumped into the moat to escape the nuisance. Puss tiptoed through the entrance, shivering with anticipation. Among the aromas of the garden flowers, there stood out clearly the scent he had first encountered on the doll he kept in his right boot. The door gave way easily in a room where candles flickered and moonlight streamed through stained-glass windows, illuminating a canopied bed where the most beautiful cat he had ever seen lay sleeping. She was black and shimmered in patterns of luminous purple, yellow, green, blue, carmine from the windows. She looked unreal.

Shyly—how odd for Puss to be so shy—he touched her. Instantly she was awake, gazing at him with large black eyes. "Are you the one?" she asked.

"I think I am," said Puss.

"Do you have the doll?"

"Yes, I do," said Puss.

"You're the one," she said.

They looked a long time at each other; and both were happy with what they saw. It was preordained. No doubt the witch-alligator would have predicted it if Puss had allowed her to.

"How long have I been here?" asked the beauty.

"I don't know," said Puss. "But the flowers in the the garden say many years."

Yes, I guess I have been here many years. Do I still look young?"

"Yes," said Puss. "Yes, you do. You're beautiful."

"I was told I wouldn't grow older while I was asleep, that I'd remain unchanged until the right one came along to break the spell. Just like Sleeping Beauty."

"What is your name?" Puss asked.

"Stella," she said. "That doll you have was mine when I was a child. I loved that doll and always had it with me. One day, when I'd grown up and decided I was no longer a child, I threw it away. I remember I was standing in a field thinking about life and about myself and about growing up. I became eager for the future and I felt the doll chained me to the pasts So I got rid of it. But even while I was walking away from that field, I began to have doubts. I had even happy in my puppy days. Would I be a happy grownup? I wandered about in a sort of trance, until I found myself standing in front of an alligator-witch."

"I should have known!" Puss exclaimed. "The alligator-witch."

Stella nodded and continued. " 'What's wrong?' she asked me, and I told her.

"'Come with me,' the witch said, and she took me by the paw. I followed her without questioning, without having an impulse to question. She brought me here. 'You are going to sleep,' she said, 'maybe for a long time. Someone will find your doll, and whoever finds it will also find you, you can be sure if that. Now you must sleep,' she said, and Inovediently went to sleep. I was under her spell. I had no thought of doing anything but what she suggested. Anyway, here you are, the one who found my doll. The witch was right."

"The witch was right," Puss agreed.

"May I have my doll?" said Stella. Puss gave her the doll, and she hugged it like a long-lost child. "Let's leave right away," she said. "I've been here so long, I want to be out in the world again."

Puss realized he was at the beginning a great new adventure.

"Let's go," he said.

Together they left the castle, which now felt very small compared to the outside world.

THE END