Can you help me find a story?

This post has “spoilers” for a children’s story.  So if you are bothered about that kind of thing, don’t read ahead!

One of my favourite stories from when I was little went something like this:

There was a ghost who had a real sweet tooth.  The ghost ate a lot of sweets and for reasons which I entirely forget, ended up being chased by a policeman. 

To escape, the ghost climbed a ladder to the sky.  It turned out that the sky was made of lovely blue glass, and because the ghost was light he could run across it.  The policeman was too heavy and so fell through the glass. (I think the fall caused the policeman to swallow his whistle, but I’m not sure on that part.)

The ghost found that the stars were made of sugar and so ran about eating the stars.  As he runs about he leaves muddy footprints on the blue glass that is the sky, and the clouds have to follow him about cleaning them up.  That’s why the clouds are white, but then go grey as they get muddy and have to wring themselves out (causing rain) to clean themselves.

I think it was in a book of bedtime stories, but I no longer have the book, or if I do, I’ve misplaced it.  I wondered if anyone recognises the story and can tell me where it’s from and who wrote it?  I seem to be the only person who remembers this one, but I thought it would be fun to see if I could rediscover it with the help of all you fine people on the world wide web!

Goodnight!