This is Woody's version. It's printed in Pete Seeger's book "American Favourite Ballads" but I think his version is slightly different.

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 the buffalo.

I found myself in Griffin in the spring of '83,
When a well known famous drover came walking up to me,
Saying, "How do you do young fellow and how would you like to go,
"And spend the summer pleasant on the trail of the buffalo."

Well, me being out of work right them to the drover I did say,
"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 on 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 get home sick and try to run away,
"You'll starve to death out on the trail and also lose your way."

"Well with all this flattering talking, he signed up quite a train,
Some ten or twelve in number, some able boddied men.
Our trip it was a pleasant one as we hit the westward road,
And crossed old Boggy Creek into old New Mexico.

There our pleasures ended and our troubles all began,
A lightening storm it hit us and made the cattle run.
Got all full of stickers from the cactus that did grow.
And the outlaws waiting to pick us off in the hill of Mexico.

Well, the working season ended and the drover would not pay.
"You all have drunk too much, you are all in debt to me."
But the cowboys had never heard such a thing as a bankrupt law.
So we left that drover's bones to bleach on the trail of the buffalo.

Line Breaks <br> added.
-Joe Offer-