gave a shout, for lo! it was running south. Wherefore it was with
a merry heart that he went on, and as he went, came on more streams, all
running south or thereabouts. He hastened on all he might, but in
despite of all the speed he made, and that he felt the land now going
down southward, night overtook him in that same wilderness. Yet when he
stayed at last for sheer weariness, he lay down in what he deemed by the
moonlight to be a shallow valley, with a ridge at the southern end
thereof.

He slept long, and when he awoke the sun was high in the heavens, and
never was brighter or clearer morning on the earth than was that. He
arose and ate of what little was yet left him, and drank of the water of
a stream which he had followed the evening before, and beside which he
had laid him down; and then set forth again with no great hope to come on
new tidings that day. But yet when he was fairly afoot, himseemed that
there was something new in the air which he breathed, that was soft and
bore sweet scents home to him; whereas heretofore, and that especially
for the last three or four days, it had been harsh and void, like the
face of the desert itself.

So on he went, and presently was mounting the ridge aforesaid, and, as
oft happens when one climbs a steep place, he kept his eyes on the
ground, till he felt he was on the top of the ridge. Then he stopped to
take breath, and raised his head and looked, and lo! he was verily on the
brow of the great mountain-neck, and down below him was the hanging of
the great hill-slopes, which fell down, not slowly, as those he had been
those days a-mounting, but speedily enough, though with little of broken
places or sheer cliffs. But beyond this last of the desert there was
before him a lovely land of wooded hills, green plains, and little
valleys, stretching out far and wide, till it ended at last in great blue
mountains and white snowy peaks beyond them.

Then for very surprise of joy his spirit wavered, and he felt faint and
dizzy, so that he was fain to sit down a while and cover his face with
his hands. Presently he came to his sober mind again, and stood up and
looked forth keenly, and saw no sign of any dwelling of man. But he said
to himself that that might well be because the good and well-grassed land
was still so far off, and that he might yet look to find men and their
dwellings when he had left the mountain wilderness quite behind him: So
therewith he fell to goin