Forgotten Bookmarks: David Swan's Sleep

I believe this is a page from a student's "creative writing" notebook, date unknown:

David Swan's Sleep

People were hurrying to and fro, while David lay fast asleep by the side of the road in a shady grove. Had is slumber been easily broken, it would have been interrupted rather often; first by a widow who thought him charming looking, then by a temperance lecturer who happened to espy David, and bought him into his text in the evening's discourse as an example of drunkenness. Shortly, however, a carriage drove along, and having met with an accident to their carriage, the elderly couple sat down beneath the trees while the coachman repairted the carriage. Leaning over David, and seeing such a picture of their own son who had died, they were about to bestow a fortune upon him, when the coachmen remarked that all was ready. Then, had not a young girl chanced to appear, David might have received the deadly sting of a bee. He was afterward visited by robbers, but it a (?) dog came near and thinking that his master might be close at hand, the robbers passed on. At last David awoke and healing the stage driver, he mounted and rode on towards Boston.

"Finis"

Cotter's Saturday Night

The common people of Scotland were a strong, healthful, happy and dignified race, and it is believed their excellent character was due to their religious spirit. The better classes were constantly under the influence of the Sabbath and of the Bible. It seems to be through religion that these simple people have become tender and...