Query: What does "rone" mean in "The Rafters Song"?

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:02 PM -0500 9/10/09, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>I've been asked the meaning of "rone" in "The Rafters Song" (words
>below; see last line of fourth verse).  OED online has several
>entrees for "rone," but none contains an appropriate meaning.  The
>term is not in DARE, and I don't find an appropriate meaning in the
>Engliish Dialect Dictionary.  A search of Google doesn't help.
>Nathaniel 'Stub' Borders was an Ozarks figure, and he wrote his song
>about 1940.
>
>I'm completely stumped.  Would anyone have any ideas on what "rone"
>below means?
>
>G. Cohen
>
>

Could it be a misspelling (or creative spelling) of "roan", i.e. a
chestnut or bay horse?  Granted, it doesn't make a lot of sense in
the context, but if when you need a rhyme, you need a rhyme...

LH

>
>
>Tie Rafters Song
>
>by Nathaniel 'Stub' Borders
>
>
>
>Good morning, Papa, Hello Son,
>
>Now I'm goin' to tell you
>
>What the Rafters done
>
>
>
>They left Edensville
>
>Just a quarter till one
>
>And they made Pike's Defeat
>
>By the setting of sun, by the setting of sun
>
>And they made Pike's Defeat
>
>By the setting of sun.
>
>
>
>I got up next morning
>
>And it looked like rain
>
>Just around the bend, I thought
>
>I spied a passenger train
>
>
>
>When I came to find out,
>
>It was Jim and Perry
>
>Just a raisin' my rone
>
>
>
>Jim reported to his stern hand
>
>He had troubles of his own.
>
>Mamma, Mamma, I can't see
>
>How these rafters get a full reputation
>
>In a first degree.
>
>
>
>Hush up, Baby, don't you cry
>
>The next papa that you have
>
>Will be a rafter man
>
>T.N.Borders is a brave Riveree
>
>
>
>He told his brother Davie
>
>That he need not to fear
>
>"All I want you to do at Three Islands
>
>Is to snub her hard"
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org