But he was quite satisfied with his morning’s work, and went back to the palace for breakfast feeling very happy.

Just then he heard his little daughter crying bitterly, and she came running into the room sobbing as if her heart would break.  “How now, little lady,” he said, “pray what is the matter with you this morning?”

“Oh dear, oh dear, such a dreadful thing has happened!” answered the child.  “I went to the garden to gather you some roses, and they are all spoiled; they have grown quite ugly, and stiff, and yellow, and they have no scent.  What can be the matter?” and she cried bitterly.

Midas was ashamed to confess that he was to blame, so he said nothing, and they sat down at the table.  The King was very hungry, and he poured out a cup of coffee and helped himself to some fish, but the instant his lips touched the coffee it became the color of gold, and the next moment it hardened into a solid lump.  “Oh dear me!” exclaimed the King, rather surprised.

“What is the matter, father?” asked his little daughter.

“Nothing, child, nothing,” he answered; “eat your bread and milk before it gets cold.”

Then he looked at the nice little fish on his plate, and he gently touched its tail with his finger.  To his horror it at once changed into gold.  He took one of the delicious hot cakes, and he had scarcely broken it when the white flour changed into yellow crumbs which shone like grains of hard sea-sand.

“I do not see how I am going to get any breakfast,” he said to himself, and he looked with envy at his little daughter, who had dried her tears and was eating her bread and milk hungrily.  “I wonder if it will be the same at dinner,” he thought, “and if so, how am I going to live if all my food is to be turned into gold?”

Midas began to get very anxious and to think about many things he had never thought of before.  Here was the very richest breakfast that could be set before a King, and yet there was nothing that he could eat!  The poorest workman sitting down to a crust of bread and a cup of water was better off than King Midas, whose dainty food was worth its weight in gold.

He began to doubt whether, after all, riches were the only good thing in the world, and he was so hungry that he gave a groan.

His little daughter noticed that her father ate nothing, and at first she sat still looking at him and trying to find out what was the matter.  Then she got down from her chair, and running to her father, she threw her arms lovingly round his knees.

Midas bent down and kissed her.  He felt that his little daughter’s love was a thousand times more precious than all the gold he had gained since the stranger came to visit him.  “My precious, precious little girl!” he said, but there was no answer.

Alas! what had he done?  The moment that his lips had touched his child’s forehead, a change took place.  Her sweet, rosy face, so full of love and happiness, hardened and became a glittering yellow color; her beautiful brown curls hung like wires of gold from the small head, and her soft, tender little figure grew stiff in his arms.