Midas, meanwhile, had poured out a cup of coffee; and, as a
matter of course, the coffeepot, whatever metal it may have been
when he took it up, was gold when he set it down. He thought to
himself that it was rather an extravagant style of splendor, in a
king of his simple habits, to breakfast off a service of gold,
and began to be puzzled with the difficulty of keeping his
treasures safe. The cupboard and the kitchen would no longer be a
secure place of deposit for articles so valuable as golden bowls
and golden coffeepots.
Amid these thoughts, he lifted a spoonful of coffee to his lips,
and, sipping it, was astonished to perceive that the instant his
lips touched the liquid it became molten gold, and the next
moment, hardened into a lump!
"Ha!" exclaimed Midas, rather aghast.
"What is the matter, father?" asked little Marygold, gazing at
him, with the tears still standing in her eyes.
"Nothing, child, nothing!" said Midas. "Take your milk before it
gets quite cold."
He took one of the nice little trouts on his plate, and touched
its tail with his finger. To his horror, it was immediately
changed from a brook trout into a gold fish, and looked as if it
had been very cunningly made by the nicest goldsmith in the
world. Its little bones were now golden wires; its fins and tail
were thin plates of gold; and there were the marks of the fork in
it, and all the delicate, frothy appearance of a nicely fried
fish, exactly imitated in metal.
"I don't quite see," thought he to himself, "how I am to get any
breakfast!"
He took one of the smoking-hot cakes, and had scarcely broken it,
when, to his cruel mortification, though a moment before, it had
been of the whitest wheat, it assumed the yellow hue of Indian
meal. Its solidity and increased weight made him too bitterly
sensible that it was gold. Almost in despair, he helped himself
to a boiled egg, which immediately underwent a change similar to
that of the trout and the cake.
"Well, this is terrible!" thought he, leaning back in his chair,
and looking quite enviously at little Marygold, who was now
eating her bread and milk with great satisfaction. "Such a costly
breakfast before me, and nothing that can be eaten!"