Come all you old-time cowboys and listen to my song
Please do not grow weary, I'll not detain you long
Concerning some wild cowboys who did agree to go
And spend a summer pleasant on the trail of the buffalo
I found myself in Griffin in the spring of '83
When a well-known, famous drover came a-walking up to me
Saying, How do you do, young feller, and how would you like to go
And spend a summer pleasant on the trail of the buffalo
Well, me being out of work right then, to the drover I did say
(Well, it's me being out of employment)
This going out on the buffalo range depends upon your pay
But if you will pay good wages, transportation to and fro
I think I might go with you to the trail of the buffalo
Of course I'll pay good wages, give transportation too
If you'll agree to work for me until the season's through
But if you do grow weary and you try to run away
You'll starve to death upon the trail, and also lose your pay
(But if you get dissatisfied and you start back for your homes,
It's likely you will starve to death, and also lose your way)
| Well, with all his flattering talking, he signed up quite a train
Some ten or twelve in number, some able-bodied men
Our trip it was a pleasant one as we hit the westward road
And crossed old Boggy Creek in old New Mexico
There our pleasures ended and our troubles all begun
A lightning storm did hit us and made our cattle run
(The very first buff I went to skin, Christ, how I cut my thumb)
Got all full of stickers from the cactus that did grow
(While skinning those damned old stinkers, our lives they were so low)
And outlaws waiting to pick us off in the hills of Mexico
Well, the working season ended and the drover would not pay
You all have drunk too much, you're all in debt to me
But the cowboys never had heard of such a thing as a bankrupt law
So we left that drover's bones to bleach on the trail of the buffalo.
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