f keeping everybody about her--from jaded Emma to the
most casual caller--on the move, while she herself presented a delicate
picture of frail inactivity. Immediately upon their arrival, her
friends found an appointed task awaiting them; but it was always
something which Miss Ann would have given to somebody else to do, had
they not chanced at that moment to appear; and they were usually left
with the feeling that the particular somebody else--whose _privilege_
they, in their well-meant zeal, had usurped--would have accomplished it
better.

Directing them from the sofa, Miss Ann kept her entourage busy and
perpetually on the move. Yet she never felt she was asking much of
them; nor, however weary at the conclusion of the task, did they ever
feel much had been accomplished, owing to the judicious use of the word
"just."

"My dear," Miss Ann would say, "as you _are_ here, will you _just_
clean the canary?" Cleaning the canary meant a very thorough turning
out of an intricate little brass cage; several journeys up and down
stairs in quest of sand, seed, and brass polish, and an out-door
excursion to a neighbour's garden for groundsel. The canary's name was
"Sweetie-weet," and, however much annoyed Miss Ann's friends might be
feeling with the canary, they had to call him "Sweetie-weet" all the
time they "cleaned him," lest his flutterings should upset Miss Ann.
Now you cannot say "Sweetie-weet" in an angry voice. Try, and you will
see. Consequently Miss Ann's friends had no vent for their feelings
during the process of getting a rather large hand in and out of a very
small brass door with a spring, which always snapped to, at the wrong
moment, while the hand, which seemed to its possessor larger than it
had ever seemed before, was crooked round in an impossible position in
a strained attempt to fix Sweetie-weet's perches. If anything went
wrong during the cleaning process, Miss Ann, from her vantage-ground on
the sofa would sigh, and exclaim: "Poor patient little Sweetie-weet!"
Miss Ann was in full possession of all her faculties. Her hearing was
preternaturally sharp. It was no use saying "Fiend!" to Sweetie-weet,
in an emphatic whisper. He fluttered the more.

When the task was completed, the cage had to be brought to Miss Ann's
couch for inspection. She then usually discovered the perches to have
been put back before they were perfectly dry. Now _nothing_--as surely
you hardly ought to require to be told--