I don't always buy into the wild stories about hidden meanings behind children's rhymes.

Joe - the problem with that is interpretation is in the eye of the beholder.
The song may have originated in all innocence, but meanings become the property of the listener once it reaches them. And sometimes those meanings are the reason the song has survived into an era that it can be collected. Unintended meaning can appear when poetry is the driver. And the Folk Process drives too.

If it resonates it survives.
And collectors like Opie were there. Thank goodness.