"At this crisis,--just as I was beginning the first morning's sacrifice upon the altar of my darling goddess, Indolence,--enter Jack Bannister, with a huge manuscript under his left arm!--This, he told me, consisted of loose materials for an entertainment, with which he meant to "skirr the country," under the title of BANNISTER'S BUDGET; but, unless I reduced the chaos into some order for him, and that _instantly_,--he should lose his tide, and with it his emoluments for the season. In such a case there was no balancing between two alternatives, so I deserted my darling goddess to drudge through the week for my old companion. "To concoct the crudities he had brought me, by polishing, expunging, adding,--in short, almost re-writing them,--was, it must be confessed, labouring under the "horrors of digestion;" but the toil was completed at the week's end, and away went Jack Bannister into the country with his BUDGET. "Several months afterwards he returned to town; and I inquired, of course, what success?--So great, he answered, that in consequence of the gain which had accrued to him through my means, and which he was certain would still accrue, (as he now considered the Budget to be an annual income for some years to come,) he must insist upon cancelling a bond which I had given him, for money he had lent to me. I was astounded; for I had never dreamt of fee or reward. "To prove that he was in earnest, I extract a paragraph from a latter which he wrote to me from Shrewsbury. "'For fear of accidents, I think it necessary to inform you that Fladgate, your attorney, is in possession of your bond to me of £700; as I consider it _fully discharged_, it is but proper you should have this acknowledgment under my hand. J.B.' "Should my unostentatious friend think me indelicate in publishing this anecdote, I can only say, that it naturally appertains to the sketch I have given of our co-operations in life; and that the insertion of it here seems almost indispensable, in order to elucidate my previous statement of our having blended so much _sentiment_ with so much _traffic_. I feel, too, that it would be downright injustice to him if I suppressed it; and would betoken in myself the pride of those narrow-minded persons who are ashamed of acknowledging how greatly they have profited by the liberal spirit of others.