Written and illustrated by Anne Curtis Photographs by Neil Denham Designed by Lotti Gecaite
If, one summer s day, you happen to find yourself in the beautiful village of Horsley...... and if you walk into the churchyard of the Holy Trinity and up the path and through the church door...... then you will see the most beautiful church organ. Listen... Someone is playing.
Of course, it sounds like this now... but it didn t sound like that then... When? When the mice came. What mice? THE ORGAN EATING MICE!
They arrived one lovely summer s evening. A Sunday, I remember it well. I could see them hanging onto each other s tails, running up the path. I admit my view of them was upside down but I thought to myself, Here comes trouble! And I was right!
I have no idea where they came from... or, for that matter, where they went... but I DO know what happened once they arrived! As you know, mice eat ANYTHING. They have enor-mouse appetites...... and the Holy Trinity Church at Horsley happened to have a most DELICIOUS organ!
They started on the felt. Night after night, they chewed and chewed.... the stoppers, the wind-chest, pedal-board, pedals and levers...... until there was NOT A SINGLE SCRAP of felt left on ANY part of the organ!
The following Sunday, the congregation gathered as usual for the 11 o clock service. The vicar announced the first hymn, And now, let us ALL sing Hymn Number 147, All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small. The congregation took a deep breath and waited for the organist to play the first note...
The congregation gasped... OHHHHHH!!! The organist went purple! The vicar fainted! BUT inside the organ the mice were having fun!
With each note, the bellows pushed the air up the pipe... and UP went each mouse in turn... until it reached the top and OUT it popped! LOOK... MICE!!! shrieked one of the congregation... and everyone leapt onto their pews. The organist gritted his teeth and played a single chord with all his might. All seven mice SHOT UP into the air together... before disappearing back inside the organ.
The organist flopped onto the keyboard, utterly exhausted. Then SILENCE, with only the vicar gently snoring, Rrrrhoh whooooooo rrrrhoh whooooooo! Suddenly, someone shouted, Cats! We need cats! And out rushed the congregation all at once. Every cat in the village of Horsley was rounded up. Fat cats, thin cats, stripy, tabby, long-haired, short-haired, black, white and ginger. Put them inside and shut the church door, ordered the churchwarden.
Once inside, the nine cats of Horsley village chased each other round and round, in and out the organ, under and over... and up and down... fighting, scratching, tearing, howling and screeching! They are making things worse... get them out! shouted the organist. And so, the vicar, the churchwarden and the organist ran round and round and round and round... until every single cat was CHASED OUT OF THE CHURCH!
The next week things went from bad to worse. EVERYTHING inside the organ that could be eaten was eaten... the leather in the bellows, reservoirs and gusset all went. The following Sunday, the organist sat at the organ, pulled out the stops, pressed the keys and...... NOTHING... absolutely NO SOUND... not a single PHHHHWWWW0000000T!
Reluctantly, the organist, who now had nothing to do, joined the congregation as they followed the vicar singing, Now the day is over... Now the d ay is over...
And the mice thought... What an awful racket! We are certainly NOT staying here to listen to that noise! It s time we left! And they DID!