Brittle book jacket Little, Brown and Company, 1952 book club edition, 304 pages The popular author of NEXT To VALOUR, THE SALEM FRIGATE and THE PEPPER TREE is at his story telling best in this fast-moving, action-packed novel about a doughty band of Scottish pioneers who braved a perilous ocean voyage to find a new homeland in what is now the province of Manitoba. THE STRANGE BRIGADe is also the love story of young Malcolm MacAllister, an itinerant schoolmaster; Jeannie, the bewitching daughter of pastor Alec MacLean; and handsome Andy Ross, a giant Scotch-Canadian lad. Two events in 1813 set in motion the exodus from Scotland: landholders evicted their ten• ants in great numbers to throw open their lands to shepherding; and the great Hud. son's Bay Company, locked in a deadly feud with the North West Fur Company for control of the Canadian fur lands, sought to make secure its holdings by importing farmers and artisans to the New World.