All you ever hear about the story of "Silent Night" is that Franz Gruber's organ was broken. That is only half of the story about why Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber had to compose the world's favorite Christmas carol in such a last-minute hurry.
Now, I can tell you kittens why their organ came to be broken.
In a word, mice!
We cats took humans under our care ten thousand years ago to protect them from mice and rats. We don't really care to eat mice, as you know. Their musty smell ruins my appetite. Although we prefer fish and fowl, we kill mice and rats as our public service and to perfect our hunting skills. Those nasty rodents spoil good food and spread disease, and that offends our senses of cleanliness and order. Humans would be helpless without us, despite all their mousetraps and poisons.
My hundred-times great-grandmother was on duty at Joseph Mohr's church during that Christmas of 1818. You kittens know how house mice always come in from the fields as soon as frosts begin. They like to keep warm, but they never store up seeds and nuts for the winter like field mice. Hundred-times great-grandmother was ready for the invasion and she performed nobly until Hans and Ernst brought their Rottweilers to choir practice three days before Christmas. The boys were friends only because they were the naughtiest boys in the whole choir and nobody else liked them. Hans and Ernst had grown bored with waiting for the choirmaster when they saw hundred-times great-grandmother.
Hans and Ernst turned their dogs loose on hundred-times great-grandmother and they laughed when their wild Rottweilers chased her out of the church. Any grown cat can put one young Rottweiler in its place by jumping on its back, but we never let two gang up on us. At least they did not find her kittens.
The mice took over the organ loft right away. The rest of the church building was cold, bare stone without any comfortable holes for mice. An organ loft is wood and full of good warm nooks and crannies. The mice made themselves at home and went to work on the bellows of the organ. Bellows may be nothing but old, dry hide to you kittens, but to mice leather is as wonderful as fresh tuna or salmon is to me. It's no wonder they ruined the organ bellows that very night. What an uproar there was the next day when Franz Gruber found out what had happened to his organ! It meant his choir could not present their usual Christmas concerto on Christmas Eve. Hundred-times great-grandmother did not know why a concerto should be so important, though she did understand that an unhappy town is not a healthy place for homeless cats.
But the story does not end there, my kittens. Your hundred-times great-grandmother made things right during choir practice the next day. She found her chance to slip back into the church that afternoon while Joseph Mohr, the choirmaster, was struggling to teach his choirboys the carol he had written in place of the regular music for the Christmas Eve service.
While Franz Gruber strummed his melody for the carol on his guitar, hundred-times great grandmother began killing mice. The first two she dropped in front of Hans and Ernst with a hiss. She laid the third at the feet of the Holy Family, in front of the Nativity crèche. When she had finished her mousing, she took a nap beside the crèche, a picture of peace and innocence.
Ernst turned red with shame, but Hans, the older boy, just kicked his mouse away. After the choir practice was over, Hans tried to chase hundred-times great-grandmother away again.
"Donner und blitzen! Didn't we get rid of that ugly old cat? Let's kill it this time!"
"Nein," Ernst said, "no, Hans, not today, please. Christmas Eve is a time for peace, nicht wahr?"
"Ach, peace -- who cares? You're getting soft in the head!" Hans told him. He got so angry with Ernst he ran away and never came back to the choir.
Ernst knelt beside the crèche and stroked hundred-times great-grandmother until she purred with a deep rumble like a miniature organ.
"Liebchen," he said, "my dear, do you know what we were singing? 'Stille Nacht; Heilige Nacht -- Silent Night, Holy Night.' I kept thinking about those words and 'All is calm, all is bright.' It's my fault the mice ruined our organ and the Christmas music. I have done wrong, but I won't sing a lie, and I will never again be cruel to an animal."
Ernst brought milk for her kittens, whose eyes were open. He gave his vile Rottweiler away as soon as he could and took one of the kittens home. Ernst’s father was so touched when Ernst confessed and asked Herr Gruber to forgive him that he paid to have Franz Gruber's organ mended and Joseph Mohr's new song printed.
Ernst became a choirmaster himself when he grew up, and one of our hundred-times great-grandmother's family went with him wherever he worked. We have always kept watch by his crèche at Nativity. May it teach you kittens that the lion may lie down with the lamb one fine day but the cat must never lie down with the mouse.
Frohe Wienachten -- Merry Christmas!
The End.