on a song-collecting foray seeking mr. and mrs. enos hartlan in the community of hartlan's point on the eastern side of the halifax harbour, helen took notice of mrs. hartlan's interest with a deserted house near their property. she explained to helen "that's our ghost house," created from the wood of old shipwrecks, and haunted with strange knocks and footsteps. this tale became the inspiration for over two decades of ghost story collecting in the maritimes, one of her first published explorations outside of the chronicling of folksongs, for which she is best known.