CHAPTER IX.
"Pour vivre tranquille il faut vivre loin des gens d'eglise." There is a little stream which flows through Middleshire which seems to reflect the spirit of that quiet county, so slow is its course, so narrow is its width.

Even the roads don't take the trouble to bridge it.
They merely hump themselves slightly when they feel it tickling underneath them, and go on, vouchsafing no further notice of its existence.

Yet the Drone is a local celebrity in Middleshire, and, like most local celebrities, is unknown elsewhere.

The squire's sons have lost immense trout in the Drone as it saunters through their lands, and most of them have duly earned thereby the distinction (in Middleshire) of being the best trout-rod in England.

Middleshire bristles with the "best shots in England" and the "best preachers in England" and the cleverest men in England.