Two classic verses share this entry: a tidy limerick about an old man cured by a plain dinner, and Ding Dong Bell, the well-known rhyme about a cat pulled from a well. The second carries a gentle moral about kindness to animals inside its jaunty rhythm.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
There was an old man of Tobago
Who lived on rice, gruel, and sago,
Till much to his bliss,
His physician said this:
"To a leg, sir, of mutton, you may go."
DING, DONG, BELL
Ding, dong, bell,
Pussy's in the well!
Who put her in?
Little Tommy Lin.
Who pulled her out?
Little Johnny Stout.
What a naughty boy was that,
To try to drown poor pussy-cat.
Who never did him any harm,
But killed the mice in his father's barn!
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition