ell you it is not
by my own fault. My plan and my purpose that
went astray and that broke down.

_Celia:_ I will not leave you till you'll change me
back to what I was. What way can these hands go
to the dance house to-night? Change me back, I say!

_Rock:_ And me--

_Timothy:_ And myself, that I'll have quiet in my
head again.

_Conan:_ I cannot undo what has been done.
There is no back way.

_Timothy:_ Is there no way at all to come out of
it safe and sane?

_Conan:_ (_Shakes head_.) Let ye make the best of it.

_Flannery: (Sings.) (Air, "I saw from the Beach.")_

"Ne'er tell me of glories serenely adorning
The close of our day, the calm eve of our night.
Give me back, give me back the wild freshness of morning,
Her clouds and her tears are worth evening's best light."

_Mother: (Who has bellows in her hand.)_ Stop!
Stop--my mind is travelling backward ...so far
I can hardly reach to it ...but I'll come to it
...the way I'll be changed to what I was before,
and the town and the country wishing me well, I
having got my enough of unfriendly looks and hard
words!

_Timothy:_ Hurry on, Ma'am, and remember, and
take the spell off the whole of us.

_Mother:_ I am going back, back, to the longest
thing that is in my mind and my memory!...
I myself a child in my mother's arms the very day
I was christened....

_Conan:_ Ah, stop your raving!

_Mother:_ Songs and storytelling, and my old
generations laying down news of this spell that is
now come to pass....

_Rock:_ Did they tell what way to undo the
charm?

_Mother:_ You have but to turn the bellows the
same as the smith would turn the anvil, or St.
Patrick turned the stone for fine weather ...
and to blow a blast ...and a twist will come
inside in it and the charm will fall off with that
blast, and undo the work that has been done!

_All:_ Turn it so!
(_Cats look over, playing on fiddles "O Johnny, I
hardly knew you," while mother blows on each_.)

_Timothy:_ Ha! (_Takes hands from ears and puts
one behind his ear_.)

_Rock:_ Ha! Where now is my bag? (_Turns
out his pockets, unhappy to find them empty_.)

_Flannery:_ Ha! (_Smiles and holds out umbrella
to Conan, who takes it_.)

_Mother: (To Celia.)_ Let you blow a blast on me.
(_Celia does so_.) Now it's much if I can remember
to blow a blast backward upon yourself!

_Celia:_ Stop a minute! Leave what is in me of
life and of courage till I will blow the la