I think they're tearing their way through "oak and ash." I collected a fragment of this ballad from Buna Hicks on beech Mountain, NC, back in 1961. Margaret MacArthur used Buna's tune and collated her text with others to come up with a fine version. There's also a good version in the Archive of Folksong at the L of C sung by a Mr. Harmon (whose first name I can't pull out of my memory right now) in Tennessee. Francis James Child called it "Sir Lionel."

Sandy