The sunbeams could not reach him ; the dust did not yet rise from the road after the heavy rain of yesterday , and his grassy lair suited the young man better than a bed of down . The spring murmured drowsily beside him ; the branches waved dreamily across the blue sky overhead , and a deep sleep , perchance hiding dreams within its depths , fell upon David Swan . But we are to relate events which he did not dream of . While he lay sound asleep in the shade other people were wide awake , and passed to and fro , afoot , on horseback and in all sorts of vehicles , along the sunny road by his bedchamber . Some looked neither to the right hand nor the left and knew not that he was there ; some merely glanced that way without admitting the slumberer among their busy thoughts ; some laughed to see how soundly he slept , and several whose hearts were brimming full of scorn ejected their venomous superfluity on David Swan . A middle-aged widow , when nobody else was near , thrust her head a little way into the recess , and vowed that the young fellow looked charming in his sleep . A temperance lecturer saw him , and wrought poor David into the texture of his evening 's discourse as an awful instance of dead drunkenness by the roadside . But censure , praise , merriment , scorn and indifference were all one -- or , rather , all nothing -- to David Swan . He had slept only a few moments when a brown carriage drawn by a handsome pair of horses bowled easily along and was brought to a standstill nearly in front of David 's resting-place . A linch-pin had fallen out and permitted one of the wheels to slide off . The damage was slight and occasioned merely a momentary alarm to an elderly merchant and his wife , who were returning to Boston in the carriage . While the coachman and a servant were replacing the wheel the lady and gentleman sheltered themselves beneath the maple trees , and there espied the bubbling fountain and David Swan asleep beside it . Impressed with the awe which the humblest sleeper usually sheds around him , the merchant trod as lightly as the gout would allow , and his spouse took good heed not to rustle her silk gown lest David should start up all of a sudden . `` How soundly he sleeps ! '' whispered the old gentleman . `` From what a depth he draws that easy breath ! Such sleep as that , brought on without an opiate , would be worth more to me than half my income , for it would suppose health and an untroubled mind . '' `` And youth besides , '' said the lady . `` Healthy and quiet age does not sleep thus . Our slumber is no more like his than our wakefulness . ''
The longer they looked , the more did this elderly couple feel interested in the unknown youth to whom the wayside and the maple shade were as a secret chamber XXXXX the rich gloom of damask curtains brooding over him .
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