Point-wise summary of the story "The Night the Ghost Got In" by James Thurber:

• The Incident Begins: On November 17, 1915, at approximately 1:15 a.m., the narrator hears mysterious, rhythmic footsteps walking around the dining-room table downstairs.
• Initial Reactions: The narrator initially suspects the sounds are made by his father or brother returning from Indianapolis, then a burglar, and finally concludes it is a ghost. He wakes his brother Herman, and both are terrified when they hear the footsteps run up the stairs toward them, even though they see nothing.
• Mother’s Alarm: The slamming of doors wakes their mother, who intuitively assumes there are burglars in the house. Because the phone is downstairs where she believes the burglars are, she throws a shoe through the window of their neighbor, Mr. Bodwell, to get help.
• Police Intervention: Mr. Bodwell calls the police, who arrive in force with reporters. Finding the front door locked, the police break the glass and force their way in, eventually ransacking the house—pulling beds from walls and tearing clothes from closets—in search of the reported burglars.
• The Narrator's Situation: The narrator spends much of the night in just a towel, having just stepped out of the bath when the footsteps began. The police are suspicious of him and find his explanations about the house's history, such as an old zither a pet guinea pig used to sleep on, to be nonsensical.
• Grandfather’s Confusion: The police hear a noise in the attic, where the narrator’s grandfather lives. At the time, Grandfather is going through a phase where he believes General Meade’s men are deserting and retreating during the Civil War.
• Violence in the Attic: When the police burst into the attic, Grandfather mistakes them for "lily-livered cattle" (deserters). He attacks the officers, slapping one and then shooting another in the shoulder with the officer's own gun.
• The Police Retreat: Discouraged and unable to find any burglars, the police eventually leave, frustrated by the "phony" layout of the situation and the fact that they were attacked by an old man.
• The Morning After: At breakfast the next morning, Grandfather appears "fresh as a daisy". He surprises the narrator and Herman by asking what all the cops were doing "tarryhootin' round the house" the night before, suggesting he may have been more aware of the reality of the situation than he let on during the heat of the moment.