A cautionary rhyme in which three children skating on ice fall through and drown, ending with a warning to keep children safe at home. It reads more like an old moral tale than a nursery game, and is one of the darker pieces in the Mother Goose canon.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
Three children sliding on the ice
Upon a summer's day,
As it fell out, they all fell in,
The rest they ran away.
Oh, had these children been at school,
Or sliding on dry ground,
Ten thousand pounds to one penny
They had not then been drowned.
Ye parents who have children dear,
And ye, too, who have none,
If you would keep them safe abroad
Pray keep them safe at home.
About this rhyme
The joke sits right at the start: children sliding on ice 'upon a summer's day' is nonsense, and that's the point before the accident happens. Three fall through, the rest run off, and the rhyme turns into a warning to parents rather than a lesson for children.
Older and blunter than most cautionary rhymes aimed at little ones.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition