Part 15 (1/2)

_Boy_

I couldn't catch him.

Whom?

_Boy_

The Old Man, whom you are seeking.

Have you seen him?

_Boy_

Yes, I thought I saw him going by in a car.

Where? In what direction?

_Boy_

I couldn't make out exactly. The dust raised by his wheels is still whirling in the air.

Then let us go.

He has filled the sky with dead leaves.

[_They go out._

_Watchman_

They are mad! Quite mad! Raving mad!

ACT III

SONG-PRELUDE

[_Winter is being unmasked--his hidden youth about to be disclosed._]

_The rear stage lighted up, disclosing Winter and the Heralds of Spring._

SONG OF THE HERALDS OF SPRING

_How grave he looks, how laughably old, How solemnly quiet among death preparations!

Come, friends, help him to find himself before he reaches home.

Change his pilgrim's robe into the dress of the singing youth, s.n.a.t.c.h away his bag of dead things And confound his calculations._

(_Another group sings._)

_The time comes when the world shall know that you're not banished in your own shadows; Your heart shall burst in torrents Out of the clasp of the ice; And your North wind turn its face Against the haunts of the flitting phantoms.