THE BIG TOAD [_Quickly, visibly embarrassed._] Nothing! It is he! THE VOICE [_Slowly and wonderfully, with the sigh of a soul in every note._] Tio! Tio! Tio! Tio! CHANTECLER [_Turning upon the_ TOADS.] Scum of the earth! THE TOADS [_Backing away from him._] What--? SCENE SIXTH THE SAME, _the_ NIGHTINGALE _unseen, and little by little all the_ FOREST CREATURES. THE NIGHTINGALE [_From the tree, in his emotionally throbbing voice._] Tiny bird, lost in the darkness of the tree, I feel myself turning into the heart-beat of the infinite night! CHANTECLER [_To the_ TOADS.] And you have dared-- THE NIGHTINGALE Hushed lies the ravine beneath the magic of the moon-- CHANTECLER --to compare my rude singing with that divine voice? Scum of the earth! Toads! And I never divined that they were doing to him here what was done to me over yonder! THE BIG TOAD [_Suddenly swelling to a great size._] Toads! Yes, as it happens, we are Toads! THE NIGHTINGALE Vapour of pearl wreathes the summits in an ethereal veil-- THE BIG TOAD [_Self-appreciatively._] We are Toads, certainly, magnificently embossed with warts! [_All rear themselves up, swollen, standing between_ CHANTECLER _and the tree._] CHANTECLER And I perceived not, I who have never known envy, to what venomous feast I was bidden! THE NIGHTINGALE What matter? Sooner or later, you, the strong, and I, the tender, we were fated, despite all the Toads in the world, to understand each other! CHANTECLER [_With religious fervour._] Sing! A TOAD [_Who has hastily dragged himself to the tree in which the_ NIGHTINGALE _is singing._] Let us clasp the bark with our slimy little arms, and slaver upon the foot of the tree! [_All crawl toward the tree._] CHANTECLER [_Trying to stop one of them who is clumsily hopping._] But are you not yourself gifted with a singing voice of exceptional purity? THE TOAD [_In a tone of sincerest suffering._] I am, but when I hear somebody else singing, I can’t help it,--I see green! [_He joins his companions._] THE BIG TOAD [_Working his jaws as if chewing something which foamed._] There foam up beneath our tongues I know not what strange soapsuds, and--[_To his neighbour._] Are you frothing? THE OTHER I am frothing. ANOTHER He is frothing. ALL We are frothing. A TOAD [_Tenderly laying his arm about the neck of a dilatory_ TOAD.] Come and froth! CHANTECLER [_To the_ NIGHTINGALE.] But will they not trouble and prevent your mellifluent song? THE NIGHTINGALE In no wise. I will take their refrain into my song-- THE BIG TOAD [_Patting a little_ TOAD _on the head to encourage him._] Don’t be afraid, go ahead,--froth! THE TOADS [_All together, at the base of the tree to which they form a crawling, writhing girdle._] The Toads, croak! croak! the Toads are we! THE NIGHTINGALE --And make of both a Villanelle! THE TOADS We welter in malignity! THE NIGHTINGALE The while they fume beneath my tree I fill with song the enchanted dell--