Little Tim MacGuire loved to play with fire,
Hated the water, never used to wash,
Loved the smell of burning, of bonfires burning,
Loved the flash of lightning and the burning sun,
When I'm a man I'll become a fireman,
Then I can light a fire for everyone,
When he was four they dressed him in a uniform,
Sent him to school with iron railings all around,
Hated the school and the rules and the railings,
Took his little tinder box and burnt it to the ground,
Oh how he laughed and danced in the firelight,
Oh how he laughed as the flames leapt to the sky,
When I'm a man I'll going to be a fireman,
Keep a bonfire burning until the day I die,
When he was older they made him wear a bowler,
Sent him to work in an office in the town
Hated the pens the pins and the papers
Had only one ambition, to burn the office down
Oh how he laughed and danced in the firelight
Oh how he laughed as the flames leapt to the sky
when I'm a man I'm going to be a fireman
And keep a bonfire burning until the day I die
The judge said at his trial, your behavior has been vile
You're a menace to society although you think you're big
You have to go to prison - and then, what a commotion
For smoke and fire were pouring from under the judge's wig
Oh how he laughed and danced in the courtroom
Oh how he laughed as the flames roared high,
They took him away, and locked him in his cell
He never saw the sun or heard the songbirds calling
Saw the prison bars and heard the prison bell
Then early one morning just as the day was dawning
A great wheel of fire leapt skywards from the jail
The iron bars melted, the stone walls crumbled
No one in the prison lived to tell the tale
No one ever found Tim MacGuire's little tinder box
No one ever found a trace of Tim MacGuire
Perhaps he's up in heaven setting light to angels' haloes
Or he’s down below dancing round the fires