Explore "The Tree-Toad" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"S cur'ous-like," said the tree-toad, / "I've twittered fer rain all day; / And I got up soon, / And hollered tel noon -- / But the sun, hit blazed away, / Tell I jest clumb down in a crawfish-hole, / Weary at hart, and sick at soul!
"Dozed away fer an hour, / And I tackled the thing agin: / And I sung, and sung, / Tel I knowed my lung / Was jest about give in; / And THEN, thinks I, ef hit don't rain NOW, / They's nothin' in singin', anyhow!
"Onc't in a while some farmer / Would come a-drivin' past; / And he'd hear my cry, / And stop and sigh -- / Tel I jest laid back, at last, / And I hollered rain tel I thought my th'oat / Would bust wide open at ever' note!
"But I FETCHED her! -- O _I_ FETCHED her! -- / 'Cause a little while ago, / As I kindo' set, / With one eye shet, / And a-singin' soft and low, / A voice drapped down on my fevered brain, / A-sayin', -- 'EF YOU'LL JEST HUSH I'LL RAIN! "