Well 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
Spend the summer pleasant on the range of the buffalo

Well I found myself in Griffin in the spring of eighty-three
When a well known famous drover he came walking up to me
He said How’d you do young fellow how’d 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
Going out on your buffalo road depends upon your pay
And if you pay good wages transportation to and fro
I think I might go with you on the hunt of the buffalo

He said of course I’ll pay good wages and transportation too
If you agree to work with me until the season’s through
But if you do get homesick and you try to run away
You’re gonna starve to death out on that trail and also lose your pay

Well with all his flattering talking he signed up quite a train
We were ten or twelve in number all able-bodied men
And our trip it was a pleasant one as we hit that westward road
Until we crossed old Boggy Creek in old New Mexico

And there our pleasures ended and the troubles all begun
There was a lightning storm it hit us and it made all the cattle run
We got all full of stickers from the cactus that did grow
And the outlaws watched to pick us off from the hills of Mexico

Well Our working season was ended and the drover would not pay
He said you drunk up all your wages boys you are all in debt to me
But the cowboys never had heard of such a thing as that old bankrupt law
And we left that drover’s bones to bleach on the trail of the buffalo

[1m] Well come all you old time cow-[^b6]-boys and [^b7] listen to my [1m] song
Please do not grow weary I’ll [^b7] not detain you [1m] long
Concerning some wild cowboys who did [^b7] agree to [1m] go
Spend the summer pleas-[^b6]-ant on the [^b7] range of the [1m] buffalo

Well I found myself in Griffin in the spring of eighty-three
When a well known famous drover he came walking up to me
He said How’d you do young fellow how’d 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
Going out on your buffalo road depends upon your pay
And if you pay good wages transportation to and fro
I think I might go with you on the hunt of the buffalo

He said of course I’ll pay good wages and transportation too
If you agree to work with me until the season’s through
But if you do get homesick and you try to run away
You’re gonna starve to death out on that trail and also lose your pay

Well with all his flattering talking he signed up quite a train
We were ten or twelve in number all able-bodied men
And our trip it was a pleasant one as we hit that westward road
Until we crossed old Boggy Creek in old New Mexico

And there our pleasures ended and the troubles all begun
There was a lightning storm it hit us and it made all the cattle run
We got all full of stickers from the cactus that did grow
And the outlaws watched to pick us off from the hills of Mexico

Well Our working season was ended and the drover would not pay
He said you drunk up all your wages boys you are all in debt to me
But the cowboys never had heard of such a thing as that old bankrupt law
And we left that drover’s bones to bleach on the trail of the buffalo