[Verse 1]
In Ireland long ago, so the old folks tell it still,
there lived a man named Jack, all cunning and no goodwill.
He'd haggle with a stranger, wriggle sideways out of debt,
parsimonious to the bone — the stingiest soul you'd met.
[Chorus]
Jack, Jack, Stingy Jack,
too clever for his own ghost to turn back,
not fit for heaven, not wanted below,
just a flicker in a turnip, wandering slow.
[Verse 2]
Legend says he tricked the Devil right up into a tree,
carved a cross into the bark so the fiend could not break free.
"I'll let you down," said Jack, "if you swear here tonight,
you'll never claim my soul, never snuff out my light."
[Verse 3]
Jack passed on later, as every tale must end —
heaven wouldn't take him, hell wouldn't let him in.
The Devil, unamused, flung an ember cold as frost;
Jack caught it in a turnip he had purloined, then got lost.
[Chorus]
Jack, Jack, Stingy Jack,
wandering the darkness on a one-way track,
his lantern made of root veg, a glow he can't let go,
that's the jack-o'-lantern, now the story you know.
[Verse 4]
In Ireland and in Scotland, folks carved a grinning face
in turnips, in beets, to give Jack's ghost no place —
they'd set them by the window on cold October night,
to frighten off the wanderers and anything that bites.
[Verse 5]
Travelers in the marshes spied a flickering ghostly spark,
dancing over bogland, teasing through the dark —
they named it will-o'-the-wisp, a wandering light that roamed,
and figured that was Jack, still searching for a home.
[Bridge]
Then the story crossed the water, found a brand new ground,
settlers carried Jack with them, no turnip to be found —
but pumpkins, big and orange, grew wild across the land,
so the carving tale continued, reshaped by a different hand.
[Verse 6]
The pumpkin took the turnip's spot, easier to carve,
roomier for candlelight, nobody had to starve
for spooky decoration on a creaking autumn porch —
the legend just kept burning like Jack's own stolen torch.
[Verse 7]
Some say if you listen close on a windy autumn eve,
you'll hear old Jack a-mutterin', still scheming to deceive —
he's haggling with shadows, he's bargaining with fate,
forever walking circles at heaven's shuttered gate.
Children now don silly masks and knock from door to door,
never knowing they're retracing the path Jack walked before —
a trickster's endless penance turned into a harvest game,
and every carved-out pumpkin whispers out his name.
[Chorus]
Jack, Jack, Stingy Jack,
too clever for his own ghost to turn back,
not fit for heaven, not wanted below,
just a flicker in a pumpkin, wandering slow.
[Outro]
So when you see a jack-o'-lantern grinning on a step,
remember stingy Jack and the bargain he once kept —
it's only a legend, passed by word of mouth for years,
still glowing every Halloween among the pumpkin ears.