Danny Dingle was a pleasant young fellow with big wide shoulders and shoes that wouldn’t stay
tied. He lived alone in a small house that had once belonged to his parents, only now they were dead. Danny was very happy to live in that house. He was very happy to work selling tickets at a movie theatre, and when he got paid every Friday he was even happier.

In fact, that is the word that best described Danny Dingle, He was very happy.

“I am so happy to meet you,” he told everyone he met.

When he went to a restaurant and the waitress brought him a cheeseburger (no ketchup), he would tell her, “This burger makes me so very happy.”
Then he might even add with a huge grin, “And so do these fries.”

One day at the movie theatre where Danny sold tickets, his happiness began to get on the nerves of his co-workers. They weren’t as happy as he was, and the more he said he was happy, the worse every body else felt.

“He’s just too damn happy,” they said. “He must be whacked in his head.”

So they called a local Doctor who specialized in people who were whacked out. His name was Doctor O. Nobody knew what the letters after the O were.

Doctor O. came over to the movie house and pretended that he was a customer. He went up to Danny Dingle who was smiling very widely behind the ticket counter.

“I’d like a ticket to see the movie called Affliction”, Doctor O told Danny.

“I will be very happy to sell you a ticket,” responded Danny . “Oh, so very happy.” He took the Doctor’s money and handed him one ticket for ‘Affliction.’

Doctor O. thought he could detect something wrong in Danny’s head. He tried a test.

“I think you are mentally deranged and very ugly,” Doctor O informed Danny.

Danny smiled. “I am sorry you think that.”

Aha! thought Doctor D.

:…but I am still so very happy, in spite of myself,” finished Danny. He gave Doctor O. a big hug.

Doctor O. went over to Danny’s co-workers. “You are correct, he is whacked in his head,” he told them. “No one can be that happy.”

The co-workers nodded and elbowed each other in the  ribs.

So Danny Dingle was committed and had to leave the house that his parents once lived in.  Now he lived in a place called Bergen Pines. There, Doctor O. tried to help Danny.

“How do you like living here?” Doctor O. asked Danny, soon after his arrival.

“Oh, Doctor…. it is wonderful. I am simply bursting with happiness.”

The Doctor frowned. Now now, Danny boy. How can I help you, with that  kind of attitude?

Doctor O. wrote papers on Danny Dingle, and he became well known as an expert in dealing with obsessive happiness. There were times when Doctor O. became frustrated and felt like giving up. But he knew that he had to cure Danny . It became his life’s Passion.

Every once in a while the Doctor asked Danny how he felt about things. As long as Danny kept giving answers like, ‘It makes me very happy, Doctor O.’  He knew that Danny was still a very sick man.

Finally, almost five years after Danny had been committed, there was a big breakthrough.

“How are you feeling today?” the Doctor asked.

Danny looked up from the magazine he was reading. He smiled at the Doctor. But then he frowned.

I have a slight headache, he said. “I think I’m feeling bad today.”

“Eureka!” exclaimed Doctor O.

A short time after that Danny was released. Doctor O. waved at Danny as he walked away from the Sanitarium. The Doctor was satisfied. He had helped a sick man.

Danny walked along the sidewalk towards home. Before he had gone very far he saw a bird sitting On a branch of a tree. It was a Red Robin, singing in a tree.

Danny looked up, when he heard the Robin, singing, “I’m so happy to be outa that
place,” and sang and whistled along with the bird. He laughed till he cried,
“I must be cured, because I am sooo-oo happy.” Sang Danny. A huge smile of contentment
spread over Danny’s face.

The bird flew off and landed on the window ledge of the Sanitarium, he sang
loud. Doctor O who was making his rounds stopped to listen to the bird.
“Why are you singing so loudly,? Asked Dr O.

“Because Danny is so very happy” sang the bird.

Dr. O pitched a book at the bird, “Go on, get out of here, you damn nuisance,
I cured Danny, he’s normal like the rest of us now.”

the bird flew away, singing loudly, “Danny’s happy, Danny’s happy.”

Dr. O grew furious. He ran from the Sanatarium in search of Danny, and found
him sitting in the park, butterflies lighting and dancing all around him, birds
singing loudly from the bushes and trees. The rage the good Dr. was feeling
completely consumed him. He had cured him ,  so what  the hell was going on?

“Danny, oh Danny boy!” He yelled. What’s going on here?”

Danny looked up to see Dr. O, and frowned, and quietly slunk down in the
park bench. “Dr. O. whatever is the matter?”

Dr. O. gasped for breath. “I thought you were happy there for a minute.”

“No, NO, I’m just hitting away all the bugs, they keep bothering me,” said
Danny, as he shushed the butterflies away. “Why would you ever think that?”

Dr. O. looked at Danny, “A little birdie told me.”

“Oh Dr. O, you have worked so hard to cure me, maybe you need a long rest?”
suggested Danny.

“No, I heard the bird, he told me you were happy.”

“A little birdie told me, a little birdie told me………”

Dr. O went back to the sanitarium. He sat by the window and listened to the singing birds,
and watched the butterflies, “A little birdie told me.” Dr. O, sat up
he realized that he was so very happy. “I must be cured!” Sang Dr.
O.