Tree Toad

Tree-toad is a small gray person with a silver voice. Tree-toad is a leaf-gray shadow that sings. Tree-toad is never seen unless a star squeezes through the leaves, or a moth looks sharply at a gray branch. How would it be, I wonder, to sing patiently all night, never thinking that people are asleep? Raindrops and mist, starriness over the trees, the moon, the dew, the other little singers, cricket . . . toad . . . leaf rustling . . . they would listen: It would be music like weather that gets into all the corners of out-of-doors. Every night I see little shadows I never saw before. Every night I hear little voices I never heard before. When night comes trailing her starry cloak, I start out for slumberland, With tree-toads calling along the roadside. Good-night, I say to one, Good-by, I say to another: I hope to find you on the way we have traveled before! I hope to hear you singing on the Road of Dreams!