old him, shaking his head.

"Yeah," the repairman said, reinverting himself. For a long while he
sat, pulling his beard thoughtfully, a look of deep thought on his face.
The reversed singer faded out, to give place to an earnestly grinning
announcer who pointed emphatically to a large, upside down sign bearing
the name of a product.

"Watching it this way could get to be a fad," the repairman said, at
last, almost inaudibly. He fell silent again, and Mr. Rapp, sadly, began
to realize that even this bearded and confident young man had apparently
been stopped, like the others.

"The way I look at it, like, there's a place where science hangs up,"
the bearded one spoke, finally.

"Like, I don't want to put down my old Guru at the Second Avenue School
of Electronics," he added, solemnly. "But you got to admit that there
are things not dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio. You dig?"

"My name isn't Horatio," Mr. Rapp objected.

"I was quoting," the repairman told him. "I mean, this is a thing like,
outside material means. Supernatural, sort of. Did you cross up any
witches lately, Pops?"

"Oh, dear," Mr. Rapp said sadly. He shook his head. "No, I haven't ...
er, offended any witches. Not that I know of." He regarded the inverted
picture for a moment. Then, as the repairman's words began to sink in,
Mr. Rapp looked at him apprehensively.

"Witches?" Mr. Rapp asked. "But ... I mean, that's all superstition,
isn't it? And anyway ... well, television sets!"

"They used to dry up cows, but who keeps cows?" the bearded one said
ominously. "Why not television sets? Like, I happen to be personally
acquainted with several witches and like that. The Village is full of
them. However--" He rose, and stalked toward the set, his eyes
glittering in a peculiar way. "You're a lucky one, Daddyo. Back in my
square days, I did some reading up on the hookups between poetry and
magic. Now, I'm a poet. Therefore, and to wit, I'm also a magician. On
this hangup, I'm going to try magic. Electronics won't work, that's for
sure."

* * * * *

"But...." Mr. Rapp was not quite sure why he disapproved, but he did. On
the other hand, the repairman appeared to be very definitely sure of
what he was doing, as he peered into the back of the television set.

"Have you ever tried ... ah, this method before?"

"Never ran into any hexed TV sets before," the repairman said,
straightening up. "Don't worry, though. I