"So Neil began the toilsome, painful journey. The way led across an arid, desert waste, where waves of yellow sand glowed under the sun's fierce heat. Neil hobbled along slowly, the hot earth scorching his feet, the brazen sky without clouds, and the air stirring from a heavy, pulseless stillness, into sultry wind puffs. The child might have drooped and fainted by the road, had not the North Wind spread her cool wings to shade him from the sun's vertical rays. She also gave him a crystal flask of pure water, and a loaf of bread; but, although his own lips were parched with thirst, he gave the precious draught to others who implored the refreshment. The supply never failed; yet, when the child looked into the flask, there never appeared to be but a few drops remaining. So, too, with his loaf of bread. There was always more to give when he broke a piece; yet there never seemed enough to eat any himself.
"'Never mind,' he thought bravely. 'All these poor people have not the North Wind to shelter them, as I have.'
"At last the desert plain ended, and Neil began to ascend a steep mountain-side, that was clouded in a mist of snow at the summit. He found the way still more difficult. Now he had to climb slopes smooth as glass; now he trod a narrow ledge above a frightful precipice, where many fell; or he was obliged to cross glaciers, where the rough points hurt his feet, and the ice yawned treacherously about him. The cold air whistled by; and the sleet drifted in sheets, so that he could hardly see his way.
"The North Wind gave him a fur cloak. How deliciously warm and soft it felt! A shivering old man came by, and Neil gave him the garment.
"'Never mind,' he thought, 'he is so old; and, besides, I have only to look up into the North Wind's kind eyes, to be both warmed and fed.'
"Half frozen with cold, he finally descended the other side of the mountain, to the brink of a wide river, upon the opposite side of which bloomed a fair country.
"'You must swim the stream,' said the North Wind; so Neil plunged in boldly. The waves curled up over his head at times; great monsters swam towards him with fierce looks,—serpents and alligators opening their huge jaws as if to devour him; yet he panted on until he was cast upon the shore.
"When he awoke, Neil found himself lying upon the soft grass, near a spring of water that gurgled from a moss-grown rock, with a pleasant sound, and tinkled along in mimic cascades beside him. He was surrounded by a group of fair children, who bade him drink of the spring. Neil drank deeply, and immediately he felt a new life. His limbs were no longer distorted, his back bowed: he was well at last.
"'Where is the North Wind?' he asked.
"The children led him to the gates of a palace, which had been before concealed from his view.