by Moe Zilla

Created on: December 03, 2010

"Once upon a time there was a wood-mouse, and her name was Mrs. TIttlemouse."

Beatrix Potter starts another charming story about a cute animal - and then gradually starts introducing some pesky insect characters. It's a fun, detailed look at the inside of a mouse's burrow. ("There were yards and yards of sandy passages, leading to storerooms and nut-cellars and seed-cellars, all amongst the roots of the hedge.") Somewhere inside, Mrs. Tittlemouse sleeps in a cozy bed. With her shining, dark mouse eyes, she looks like a fastidious housekeeper. Which is why the insects seem so misplaced...

Mrs. Tittlemouse keeps a tidy house, but sometimes a lost beetle tramps across her floor, or a ladybug which she mistakes for "a little old woman in a red spotty cloak." One day, she even finds "a big fat spider" trying to keep out of the rain. ("Beg pardon, is this not Miss Muffet's?") And walking through the tunnel to a distant storeroom, she sees the marks of dirty little feet along the passageway - plus the smell of honey. Around the corner, she encounters Babbitty Bumble, the bumble bee, who's built a nest for her young ones - and Mrs. Tittlemouse begins to wish that she'd brought a broom!

The mouse's face is very expressive, and there's a natural tension with the presence of the insects. But the story is almost a social satire, since Mrs. Tittlemouse's response is to bring in a professional to "turn them out." As soon as she specifies that she doesn't want Mr. Jackson, because he never wipes his feet, she discovers Mr. Jackson - a frog has invited himself into her parlour. He'd been attracted by the smell of honey, while poor Mrs. Tittlemouse has to follow him around with a dishcloth to wipe up his wet footprints!

There's always a magical tension in Beatrix Potter's story, as you wonder where the human world ends and the animal world begins. As the frog wanders her passageways looking for honey, he discovers "three creepy-crawly people" in a parlour - and "the littlest one he caught." There's a nice drawing of a new character named Miss Butterfly, who is "tasting the sugar," but she flies out the window, and the next talking animal that the frog  meets is Babbity Bumble. And unfortunately, when the frog finally meets the bumble bee, he doesn't want to eat it after all, because its outside is too bristly!

As laughable as it seems, the book's happy ending is that Mrs. Tittlemouse finally ejects both the bees and the frog. And that when the house is finally tidy - it takes two weeks - she holds a festive party with five of her mouse friends!

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