There's a tune that goes with this

And I know it, but I don't find any on-line version of the tune.

Mother, may I go out to swim?
Yes, my darling daughter.
Hang your clothes on a hickory limb,
And don't go near the water.

This is the chorus of a stage song from 1908. Here's another reference (search and scroll down). This one implies that the verse is much older.

I go for long periods of time without thinking of this, and then suddenly it applies to a given situation and I remember it. I see that Lincoln Steffens quotes it in his autobiography and that I've posted about it before.