Haunted Harbours: Ghost Stories from Old Nova Scotia

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

You’re alone in the night when you hear footsteps behind you and know
something is following you ever deeper into the shadowy forest. On a
fog-shrouded beach you hear the moaning. Is it sea wind in the rigging
of a ghost ship or the creak of the old wooden gallows?

Nova Scotia, land of mist, fog, unforgiving ocean, and dark forests, is
home to countless ghost stories. Vernon, a professional storyteller, has
collected 21 of these tales, guaranteed to frighten young children and
enliven campfire evenings. Each story is introduced with a few lines
acknowledging the story’s source and any liberties Vernon has taken in
adding to it. The stories are drawn from or attributed to various
locations across the province, from Yarmouth to the tip of Cape Breton,
from Sable Island to the Bay of Fundy. A simple sketch map pinpoints
where the horrifying events are said to have taken place. The subjects
include dead lovers, murdering sons, treasure hunters, pirates, a woman
turned to stone, a devil that dances around the barn, and the dreaded
black dog that surely is the hound of hell baying at your cabin door.
There’s eerie moaning from the sea caves, strange and awful cries from
the woods at night.

Vernon struggles to be a stylist. He would call up horror but often,
instead, finds beauty flowing from his pen in phrases such as “your
breath painting pictures on the wind” or “soft footed as the shadow
of a cloud.” Yet it’s said that on a moonless night, with mist
floating like a shroud over the dark and lonely swamp, the book will
hurl itself from the bookshelf as if demanding to be read.