coldest.

But on the fifth morrow the ground rose but little, and at last,
when he had been going wearily a long while, and now, hard on
noontide, his thirst grieved him sorely, he came on a spring welling
out from under a high rock, the water wherefrom trickled feebly
away. So eager was he to drink, that at first he heeded nought
else; but when his thirst was fully quenched his eyes caught sight
of the stream which flowed from the well, and he 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.