Struth! Mr John B. was murdered over beer!

[BIAD]

...The culprits of this heinious crime openly confessed that they would be rewarded in beer and money
for committing this atrocity on the poor victim Mr J. Barleycorn and yet the law does nothing to take
these men into custody and put them on trial.

The horrors Mr. Barleycorn endured at the hands of three men have been lamented in many taverns around
the world for centuries and I've heard it said that a double was put in his place at the last minute, but I cannot
swear to it.

Who knows what dark thoughts haunted the trio that made the solemn pact to desecrate such a noble character
and maybe with flinty gazes, they monitored each other with distrust as they toasted his demise.

Who would speak first of the slaying...? Which would finally break and whisper the deed into the hairy ear-hole
of their priest as they lay on their deathbed? As the dented tankards hid their faces, these reflections would
flutter and flap between them.

But when midnight flickers the candle and the wind deplores it's woebegone-tones around the smoke-smudged
chimneys, the three murderers will dream of tilled soil and a hand that reaches out for retribution.
John Barleycorn will not die.