QUEEK
This is Queek. He is the laziest of all the animals and every year he is getting fatter and fatter, although his legs still remain weak and wobbly because he never uses them.
Years ago, when he was young, Queek used to be quite active, and one day he built himself a house. It was in the hot weather on a specially hot day, so when he had finished it (all except the front door) he sat down on the flower-bed outside his dining-room window and leaned against the wall. He found it so comfortable sitting against the wall of his house in the sun that he simply could not find the energy to get up. He did not go to bed, neither did he get up for breakfast the next morning. In fact to make a long story short, he has been sitting there ever since.
So he has never been inside his little house that he built so carefully that morning, and his cousin the Skutch cleans it out thoroughly every month and also comes round at mealtimes and passes out Queek’s food to him through the window.
His only worry is the front door, which he feels ought to be put on because the dust blows in and makes the hall carpet so dirty. However, every one else says they are much too busy to spend time on a house that no one lives in, and Queek seems to think that he will never do it, so he will probably go on worrying about it for a very long time. And I think it serves him right.
It seems sad to think of him sitting there on the flower-bed all his life, but he says he is perfectly happy and comfortable, specially since his last birthday when the animals gave him a big umbrella to keep him dry in the wet weather. So perhaps we don’t need to pity him.