Down North and Up Along 
when Canal Street deserved its name even 
more than at present, when the buxom milk- 
maid filled her foaming pail in the Bowery. 
Digby is a clean, wind-blown, beflowered, and 
beflaked little fishing village, but when along 
her streets the ox-carts go rumbling and sham- 
bling, she becomes something more : she has a 
part in the fields and the grassy lanes as well 
as in the salt sea. 
Digby oxen have none of the coyness and 
head-turnings common to their " American " 
kindred. They are apparently as unconcerned 
and stolid at the approach of a stranger as was 
the blind starfish in the cavern under the wharf 
They turn their heads neither to the right nor 
to the left when in the yoke, but face front as 
unswervingly as if on military parade. Their 
eyes, which roll in the direction of the one 
approaching, alone betray the curiosity natural 
to their race. They have an un-oxlike dig- 
nity and precision of movement, which is 
rather impressive, and which is not wholly 
owing to the superior character of Nova Scotia 
cattle, for their ingenious masters have placed 
the yoke upon their heads instead of about 
their necks. 
26 
