A laugh is a smile that bursts.

I read an interesting story about the history of the smiley.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/sefSmiley.htm

I read a facinating article on saint germain.

http://www.alchemylab.com/count_saint_germain.htm

I also came across this story called the 7 sleepers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sleepers