Come round you old time cowboys, and listen to my song
Please do not grow weary, I will not detain you long
Concerning some young cowboy, who did agree to go
Spend the summer pleasantly on the trail of the buffalo
Well I found myself in Griffin, in the year of '83
When a world-famous drover come a-walkin' up to me
Sayin', "How d'ya do young cowboy. how'd you like to go
Spend the summer pleasantly on the trail of the buffalo?"
Well me being out of work right then, at this drover I did say
"This a-goin' out on the buffalo range depends upon your pay
But if you pay good wages, transportation to and fro'
Think I might go with you on the hunt of the buffalo."
"yes I will pay good wages and transportation too
If you'll agree to work for me until the season's through
But if you do get homesick and try to run away
You'll starve to death on the prairie and also lose your pay."
Well with all this flatterin' talkin', he signed up quite a train
Some ten to twelve in number, some able-bodied men
Our trip it was a pleasant one as we hit the westward road
Until we hit old Boggy Creek in old New Mexico
Well there our pleasures ended and our troubles they begun
A lightin' storm did hit us, made the cattle run
I got all full of stickers from the cactus that did grow
Outlaws watchin' to pick us off from the hills of the buffalo
Well our workin' season ended, but the drover would not pay
He said, "You went and drunk too much, you're all in debt to me."
But the cowboys never did hear of such a thing as a bankrupt law
So we left tht drover's bones to bleach on the hills of the buffalo