Title: The Legend of the Christmas Cat
Author: Mary
Rating: G
Summary: Reverend Farley tells the Legend of the Christmas Cat To the Ghost and Mrs. Muir and family.
Response to the GAMM Christmas Legends Challenge on the GAMM yahoo groups list. Use a Christmas legend or poem and create a GAMM story, using a Christmas legend or poem. The author of The Christmas Cat, and Icelandic poem is unknown. The poem itself is 100-200 years old. I welcome any other information about possible authorship.
Disclaimer: The characters from 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir ' belong to 20th Century Fox and David Gerber productions. No infringement is intended, no profit made, and they will be returned unharmed from whence they came. This story is for enjoyment only.
"All other characters, plots, storylines and development of GAMM characters belong to the authors of this story and may not be used or changed without express written permission.
The Legend of the Christmas Cat
"I'm just asking you to consider it, Mrs. Muir . . ." the older man said. "I know you are busy with your writing and trying to keep your household running . . . but . . ."
"And just what in blazes does this man think I do around here?" Captain Gregg materialized into the parlor where he scowled at Carolyn Muir who was pouring tea for herself and Reverend Farley, the Episcopal minister from the village, late afternoon four days after Christmas. "I do have SOME say-so about the goings-on in my own household!"
Carolyn flinched, shot the seaman a covert glance and turned back to the Reverend.
". . . But really, being church secretary wouldn't take that much time . . ." the clergyman continued, giving her a long-suffering look. "Only about two hours a month to attend the Vestry meeting, and then whatever time it would take you to transcribe and type up the minutes! Pretty cut and dried, really! Then, of course you present the minutes and make any changes to them and take the minutes at the next month's meeting and so-on! If I could just have your permission to put your name up for consideration! I'm planning on asking Mrs. Post and Mrs. Jenkins also . . ."
"Well, I don't know . . ." Carolyn paused.
"I wouldn't ask you but for the fact that Maybelle Gilbert is due to deliver her sixth child any day now and with the five others at home and the new baby she thinks she will need a break from her church duties. And well, she HAS been secretary for the last three years!" the Reverend added, laying on a little guilt.
"Well, I can certainly understand that!" Carolyn smiled. "It's just that I do have a lot to keep me busy here . . . "
"You certainly do!" Daniel Gregg interjected. "Do you really think Madam, I will stand by while this well-meaning soul RAILROADS you into . . ." and Carolyn flinched again. "Relax Madam, the good Reverend can neither see nor hear me unless I wish it!"
"Well I don't wish it!" Carolyn muttered under her breath.
"I know it's not a glamour job," Reverend Farley continued. "But you ARE a professional writer, and a member of our little community, even if you do live further from town, and you HAVE lived here for over two-and-a-half years now! You could do it so well! The Vestry meets the fourth Thursday of the month and Martha has adult choir and the children youth choir practice on Thursday nights anyway - you could all make the trip into town together! But if you really don't wish it . . ."
"No, Reverend . . ." Carolyn interrupted. "I was just thinking of . . . of something else."
The minister nodded. "You do look distracted! You have another brilliant idea for a story, no doubt. Martha said to me once that you try out your stories out loud a good deal." He cocked his head to one side. "She used to worry about you - but she never mentions it any more! But really Mrs. Muir, I wish you would think about it - you have such a way with words and my wife has been after me to ask you. She keeps telling me, John, if you can't get Carolyn Muir to join the choir, especially when you know what a nice voice she has, the least you can do is to get her involved in something here in our parish!" He gave her a concerned look. "We worry about you up here . . . alone . . . unattached . . . and you and Claymore Gregg didn't end up getting married after all! I know you had your reasons, but, well . . ." his voice trailed off, and the good man wondered if he had said too much.
Carolyn covered a smile and moved to add another log to the fire that was burning merrily in the fireplace.
"Blast it!" The Captain moved himself from where he was standing to the left of his portrait to just in back of the clergyman. "I can take care of my family quite well without . . . Say something Madam! . . . If you don't, this well-meaning soul will start sending every available male from here to Pripet to inquire after your health and well-being! Maybe you should consider his request, my dear."
Carolyn rolled her eyes and was saved from saying anything else by Candy and Jonathan's bursting into the room.
"Mom, can Candy and I go . . ." Jonathan brought himself up short. "Excuse me, Reverend Farley!"
"Quite all right, Jonathan!" He gave Jonathan and Candy a nod and a smile. "As a matter of fact, I'm glad you are here!"
"Oh, don't worry, Reverend Farley!" Candy smiled sweetly, "We remember! Youth choir practice starts again next Thursday!"
"And I get to start training to be an acolyte too!" Jonathan grinned. "I've really been looking forward to that!"
"Oh, that's not it!" Reverend Farley smiled. "I have something for you!"
The clergyman reached into his pocket, pulled out a small object and placed it in Jonathan's hand.
"What is it?" Candy peered over the boy's shoulder while Carolyn and the Captain looked more than interested.
"It's a cat," Jonathan stated. "A little china cat." He looked somewhat baffled, and gave the man before him a questioning look.
"It's for your manger." The Reverend gestured to the Nativity figurines Carolyn had lovingly set up on the mantelpiece. "You know! Under that handsome fellow over there." And he gestured to Captain Gregg's portrait.
The seaman preened himself while Candy asked, "But what does a cat have to do with Christmas?"
"Well . . . " he stopped. "But weren't you children were going somewhere . . . ?"
"No sir!" they cried. "We really do want to hear the story," Jonathan said. " We have been collecting all sorts of stories and legends about Christmas this year!" The boy shot Captain Gregg a quick glance. "I think it might be too late to go skating, after all."
Reverend Farley took the cat back from Jonathan's still-outstretched hand, cradled it in his, seated himself on the couch and picked up his cup of tea. The children sat on the floor in front of him, and Captain Gregg stood silently beside Carolyn where she too had seated herself on the other end of the couch.
"No one knows quite where the legend of the Christmas Cat came from," Reverend Farley started. "But, being a cat-lover, I must admit it's one of my personal favorites!" He smiled down at the children. "Legend has it that on our first Christmas night, the first to see the baby Jesus were not the shepherds, but animals! Mammals, birds, reptiles – all kinds! They all wanted to be first to pay Christ homage, and starting on the first stroke of midnight, that first Christmas, they started arriving in groups to see him. The cat came with all the other animals of course, but cats, back then were still wild creatures – feral really. But this one particular little cat did come to where the baby Jesus was."
"Neat!" exclaimed Jonathan. "I would have liked to see all those animals showing up at the stable in Bethlehem!"
Reverend Farley continued. "The cat wouldn't come any closer than the hearth though! The other animals knelt in praise, while the little cat merely stared, overcome, at the Nativity and at the other animals. It was a sight! The deer stood beside the hound, the rabbit snuggled with the fox, and then the lion and the lamb lay down together and they bowed their heads together to worship the Son of God."
"I remember reading something like that in the Christmas lesson!" Candy remembered. "And Aunt Jenny sent us a Christmas card with the Lion and the Lamb!"
Reverend Farley smiled at the group surrounding him and continued.
"The animals sang to the son of God that night, each in their own language. They had their own heavenly chorus! Only the cat made no sound – just a small trembling in her throat, hardly a sound at all really!"
The clergyman stopped and poured himself another cup of tea and looked at the shining faces in front of him.
"Then, after a long time, the other animals left. The eagle flew to his nest, the lion to his den. The cat, however did not leave the place that was both a stable and a crib for Jesus, and stayed by the fire."
"What happened then, Reverend?" Carolyn questioned softly, looking over at her own fireplace, suddenly wishing the pet cat she had as a child was sitting by the hearth.
"Mary spoke," the clergyman said. "Saying Dear Cat – stiff-necked, proud and obstinate beast, I bless you. From this hour, leave the wild behind you. Because you stayed, though no one hod the power to make you their servant, or make you stay, this hearth will bind you forever to itself, loving and free. Wherever Man is, you will be also. Many families will smile when you settle and sing your gentle song!"
"Purring!" the Captain said, softly, completely bewitched by the clergyman's story.
The old man continued. "You know, since I heard about this legend, I like to look at my cat – especially on cold nights like tonight! And when I see her tail quiver and her eyes looking at something I can't see, I like to think she is dreaming of a previous life in the jungle. Then, likely as not, I watch her curl her tail up around her, and tuck her front paws under, in what my wife calls her 'Mandarin Position,' and sooner or later she falls asleep again, and I hear her purr the way I think her ancestor learned to do the night the Christ Child was born."
The children remained quiet for a moment, and then Jonathan took the little china cat from the clergyman's outstretched hand, and reaching up on tiptoe, placed the small china creature in the manger with the rest of the Nativity scene.
"There!" he said, satisfied. "That's where she belongs!"
Silently, Reverend Farley and the family living at Gull Cottage gazed into the fire and at the Nativity scene before them as twilight started to fall – no one wanting the quiet moment to end.
End