The Chain of Smiles

One day, Miss Ellis gave her pupils a new assignment on happiness. Her pupils would be happiness collectors, and were to see what would happen when they tried to bring happiness to those around them. As part of their assignment, all the students did really delightful, wonderful things, but what Carla Chalmers did left everyone shocked. Several days after the assignment was handed out, Carla turned up carrying a big bag. “Here in this bag is all the happiness I have collected so far,” she said, smiling. On seeing this, everyone was filled with expectation, but Carla didn’t want to show anyone what was in the bag. Instead, she pulled out a small box and gave it to her teacher. When Miss Ellis had taken the box, Carla took an instant camera out of her pocket and stood with it at the ready. “Open it, Miss Ellis,” said Carla. The teacher slowly opened the small box and looked inside. A big smile shone on her face, and at that moment Carla took a photo. Carla’s photo popped out the camera, and she offered it to Miss Ellis along with a sheet of paper. Miss Ellis read the paper in silence, and when she had finished, she gestured over at the sack. “Oh, so it’s...” “Yes!” interrupted Carla, undoing the knot which sealed the sack. “It’s a great big pile of smiles!” She opened the sack and hundreds of photos fell out, all of which were different smiles, and each of which was beautiful. The rest of the class tried to work out how Carla had managed to create such a great big chain of happiness. All there in the box was a photo of a big smile. Everyone who had seen it could feel happiness, and in return, without even thinking about it, every person had responded with a smile of his own. With all her classmates smiling, Carla took a photo of each of them. She gave them their own photo along with a slip of paper, which asked them to do the same with other people, and to send a copy of photos to her home address. For months afterwards, Carla’s post box was always full of photos of happy, smiling people. Carla managed to spread the simple truth that every time you smile, you are sending a gift to the world.