"What fun!" whispered Rob; and the two children stole downstairs in their stocking-feet, like two little thieves; then they drank a good tumbler of cream, and ate the cold potatoes with salt, and some nice brown bread, and butter.
"I don't think a king need have a better breakfast than this," said Rob.
"I do!" said Nelly. "If I were a queen, I'd have a better one."
"What would you have, Nelly?" said Rob, earnestly.
"Cold roast turkey," said Nelly, "and bread and honey."
"Pooh!" said Rob, "I hate honey. It has such a twang to it. I'd have melted maple sugar always on my bread, if I were a king. I'd have maple sugar packed up in little houses, as they pack the ice in ice-houses, and just cut out great square junks, to melt up."
As the children went out of the house, the sky in the east was just beginning to be bright red. The sun was not up; but it was very light, and Pike's Peak shone against the red sky like a great mountain of alabaster. The peaks of the mountains in the west were rosy red; all their tops were covered with snow, and in the red light they looked like jewels.
"Oh, Rob, look! look!" cried Nelly: "isn't it perfectly lovely! Let's always come early like this."
Rob looked at the mountains and the sky.
"Yes, 'twould be pretty if 'twould stay so," he said; "but 'twon't last a minute."