Mice are interesting creatures.
We scream when we find them in the house, except when they're running on their treadmill, looking cute and unobtrusive in their secure cage. Enter Johnson who plays on the wit two mice use when their stack of cheese disappears. Hem and Haw, the littlepeople in the book, are exact opposites from the mice, resisting change and insisting on staying put, even though the cheese is gone. We're creatures of habit. We're more comfortable with the familiar, even if the familiar no longer provides for or benefits us.