The eleven year old Herbert and his siblings, the nine year old twins Jutta and Günther, help the Little Ghost to find its way back home to the castle. While the Little Ghost spends the night in the cellar of the pharmacy, it hears the conversation between the children and it finds out that the Swedish General and his soldiers, whom the Little Ghost saw earlier that day, were actors. At night, the three children sneak out to find the eagle-owl Mr. Schuhu in his empty oak, to ask for its advice. They can understand the eagle-owl with the help of the bunch of keys from the Little Ghost. After speaking with Mr. Schuhu, the children go to the watch master maker and ask him to adjust the town hall clock. He repairs it. Furthermore, the three children write together with the Little Ghost a letter to the mayor in which it apologizes for its behavior. When Otfried Preußler was a child, his grandmother Dora told him stories very often. One of these stories was about a White Lady (ghost) who predicted births and deaths in the family of her descendants and who moreover protected her home very often. Once, the white lady closed away the Swedish General Torstenson Torstenson from the castle of her father, by shooing him out of his bed, giving him a telling off, while he was only wearing his night clothes and begging for mercy. Preußler always kept this scene in mind and while he was writing the book of the history of the white lady, the white lady converted to the Little Ghost. The original Thienemann edition was later published with different front pages and with different publishers, like the German Bücherbund, the Büchergilde Gutenberg, Bertelsmann Lesering (RM book and media) and with its successor Club Bertelsmann. The original illustrations from Franz Joseph Tripp were used for the international publishing. However, some editions were published with new illustrations on the front page, like e. g. the Spanish version “El pequeño fantasma” or some Russian versions from Malenkoe Prividenie. The Dutch version “Het spookje” was completely new illustrated by Ingrid Schubert. In the year 2013, in which Preußler celebrated his 90th birthday, Thienemann published two new editions of The Little Ghost. One edition was published in color for the first time and available as an e-book, together with his other books "The Little Water Sprite", "The Little Witch" and the three volumes of "The Robber Hotzenplotz".