FROST AND FIRE

Merrick has tapped his established medium for a novel of Labrador life, a story of children of mixed blood, Scotch and Eskimo. Jan and Luce have similar backgrounds, but Luce is determined to know the world of her father, while Jan is content to be a trader and a good one. The story is told of the endless contest against cold and hunger, of the privations endured because of the trader's inhumanity, the trapping, the fishing, the hunting on which isolated families depended for food, clothing and shelter. The Northern way of life wins out over Boston's civilization, and Luce returns. There is plenty of adventure in daily living, to which the plot seems secondary, and the book resolves itself into a well-detailed picture of the people and their life.