Of Mice and Presidents

Cute? Johnny Townmouse and Timmy Willie enjoying tea and herb pudding. Beatrix Potter has a wonderful way of making small rodents charming, even delightful as they run through the walls of the houses they inhabit in their dapper waistcoats, stealing crumbs and bits of cheese from the pantry, all the while tormenting the family cat.

Not so when they run through the dining room of a restaurant.

After a lovely evening spent with President and Mrs. Lincoln at the Chicago History Museum we stopped in the cafe for a quick bite before heading home. Johnny Townmouse had a similar idea, he dashed across the dining room just as our sandwiches arrived. The staff was not at all surprised, and in fact, so casual about the entire episode they turned out the lights on us as we were eating, perhaps as it was time for the rodent residents to get to bed.

We were not amused, and the meal went uneaten, mice sightings just have a way of making me less than hungry. A phone call to the museum the next day made everything right, thankfully. Of course they still have to deal with Johnny Townmouse and his cousin running through the diorama of the Chicago fire, skipping merrily at night amongst the old train cars and Lincoln artifacts, happily I do not.