It could still be reported in the Barsetshire Conservative _Standard_ that "The beards wagged all" at Greshamsbury, now as they had done for many centuries on similar festivals.

Yes; it was so reported.

But this, like so many other such reports, had but a shadow of truth in it.

"They poured the liquor in," certainly, those who were there; but the beards did not wag as they had been wont to wag in former years.

Beards won't wag for the telling.