Dreamer, not Lazy

Walter the Lazy Mouse by Marjorie Flack was a childhood book I owned, that haunted me for years. The message spelled out in archetypal fashion is that Walter was lazy and paid for it. I still think about this book today. The moment when Walter comes home and finds that his family has moved away spooked me. I thought about it every day when I walked home for lunch from elementary school. I was not lazy but I was a dreamer and my family did eventually move away.