The Buffalo Skinners

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 the spend the summer pleasant on the range of the buffalo

Well, I found myself in Griffin in 1883
When a well-known famous drover come walkin' up to me
He said, "How do you do, young feller
And how'd you like to go
And spend the summer pleasant on the trail of the buffalo?"

Well, me bein' out of work right then, to that drover I did say
"This goin' out on the buffalo road depends upon your pay
If you'll pay good wages, transportation to and fro
Well, I think I might go with you on the range 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 grow homesick and try to run away
You'll starve to death out on the trail and you'll also lose your pay."

Well, with all this flatterin' talkin', well, he signed up quite a train
Some ten or twelve in number, all able-bodied men
Our trip it was a pleasant one as we hit the westward road
Until we struck old Boggy Creek in old New Mexico

Well, here our pleasures ended, and our troubles all begun
When a lightin' storm hit us and it made the cattle run
We got all full of stickers from the cactus that did grow
And the outlaws waitin' to pick us off in old New Mexico

Well, our workin' season ended, but that drover would not pay;
He said, "You went and 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 range of the buffalo