A Night Out by Francis Hopkinson Smith

Thoreau once spent the whole livelong night in the hush of the wilderness; sitting alone, listening to its sounds -- the fall of a nut, the hoot of a distant owl, the ceaseless song of the frogs.

This night of mine was spent in the open; where men came and went and where the rush of many feet, and the babel of countless voices could be heard even in its stillest watches.