WHEN Bill was a lad he was terribly bad.
He worried his parents a lot;
He'd lie and he'd swear and pull little girls' hair;
His boyhood was naught but a blot.
...
Read full text
This poem has been misquoted. It was Jim not Bill that wound up in a prison cell. The last line then makes sense. I can only suppose the change was made to turn the poem into a saccharine moral lesson. I prefer the original where the spirited child who does not hide his nature has a chance in life while the apparently compliant one has a dark side.
Context