Tradition was safety; change is danger.

This was a saying that all of the citizens of Grumpton took very seriously. There was a rule that you may never smile, or laugh, no matter the occasion. Grumpton was a place of work, and the king did not want anyone to smile. Why? Well, smiling leads to laughing, laughing leads to joking, joking leads to playing around, and playing around is the opposite of WORK. You will be sent to the dungeon if you do not follow the king’s command.

    There was once a traveling merchant who passed through Grumpton. He felt a little lonely, as he had been traveling from a long distance. So, seeing the bakery up ahead, he went inside. ‘’Hello!’’ he said with a cheerful smile.

    The baker stared at him with wide eyes. Then, taking control, he barked, ‘’Get out of here! This is no place for you!’’

    The merchant left the bakery, puzzled at why the baker got so upset. 

    As he walked through the village, he noticed there was a mercantile. He thought, ‘Maybe the owner would talk to a fellow merchant.’

    So, the merchant went inside. ‘I will be even more friendly this time,’’ he decided. 

    ‘’Hello, sir! How do you do?’’ he asked the owner with a huge grin.

    The owner’s face turned blazing red. ‘’Get out of here! Don’t come back,’’ he snarled. ‘’You’ll get us both in trouble.’’

    He threw him out before the merchant could ask what the owner meant.

    ‘’Well, I screwed that up,’’ he told himself as he walked away.

    Suddenly, he saw soldiers ahead. He tried to go around them, to get out of their way. But one of them barked, ‘’By order of the king! You are to come with us.’’

    What did the merchant do now?

    The soldiers led him into the huge castle. They didn’t take long to enter the king’s throne room, where the king looked very angry.

    The merchant bowed before the king and waited for him to speak.

    ‘’I have heard from many people that you are disobeying my laws,’’ the king said sternly. ‘’Why is that? Why are you disobeying my rules?!’’

    ‘’Your Majesty, I am a traveling merchant. I have no idea what rule I’ve broken,’’ the merchant said, very puzzled indeed.

    ‘’Ah, yes,’’ the king said, his temper calming down. ‘’I shall tell you, then you will be on your way.

    ‘’Here in Grumpton, we have the biggest factories, stores, and homes in the world,’’ he paused for effect. The merchant was sure he was exaggerating, but he did not dare to interrupt.

    ‘’As I was saying, we work hard here. I do not want ANY playing around,’’ the king continued. ‘’You broke my law.’’

    ‘’Which law?’’ the merchant asked.

    ‘’You are not allowed to smile or laugh or talk cheerfully! You smiled and laughed and talked with such a cheerful tone with everyone you met today! You are disrupting our village.’’

    ‘’But, Your Majesty,’’ the merchant said, trying not to laugh at the silly rule, ‘’Why do you have such laws? It’s a wonderful feeling to smile and laugh.’’

    ‘’Because,’’ the king snapped, ‘’smiling leads to laughing, laughing leads to joking, and joking leads to PLAYING AROUND!!!’’

    ‘’Now I understand, sir,’’ the merchant said timidly, ‘’but I still think the law is silly.’’