Frank Tovey - Buffalo Skinner lyrics

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 the summer pleasant On the trail of buffalo I found myself in Jacksboro In the spring of seventy-three A man by the name of Crego Came stepping up to me Saying "How do you do, young fellow And how would you like to go And spend the summer pleasantly On the range of buffalo?" Well I´ve being out of work right then So to the drover I did say "going out on the buffalo range Depends upon the pay But if you pay good wages Transportation to and fro I think, I might go with you And hunt the buffalo." "Of course I pay good wages And transportation too Provided you will go with me And stay the summer through But if you should grow homesick Come back to Jacksboro I won't pay transportation From the range of buffalo." Now our outfit was complete Seven able-bodied men With navy six and needle gun Our troubles did begin; Our way it was a pleasant one The route we had to go Until we crossed Pease River On the range of buffalo There our pushes ended Our troubles have begun The first damned tail I went to rip Christ, how I cut my thumb! While skinning the old damned stinkers Our lives they had no show For the Indians watched to pick us off On the hills of Mexico Our meat it was buffalo hump And iron wedge bread And all we had to sleep on Was a buffalo fur of bed Pease River's as salty as hell fire The water I never could go O God! I wished I had never come To the the range of buffalo The fleas and gray-backs worked on us O boys, it was not slow I tell you there's no worse hell on earth Than the the range of the buffalo Our hearts were cased with buffalo hocks Our souls were cased with steel And the hardships of that summer Would nearly make us reel; The fleas and gray-backs worked on us O boys, it was not slow I tell you there's no worse hell on earth Than the the range of buffalo The season being over Old Crego he did say The crowd had been extravagant Was in debt to him that day; We coaxed him and we begged him And still it was no go So we left old Crego's bones to bleach On the range of buffalo Oh, it's now we've crossed Pease River And homeward we are bound No more in that hell-fired country Shall ever we be found Go home to our wives and sweethearts Tell others not to go For God's forsaken the buffalo range And the damned old buffalo