Living the Cowboy Ways

It was pretty late in September and I was over the Billings way I was riding fence for Freddie White on the west end of the Rockin Bar J Well night time can fall pretty early come along bout that time of the year I started me up a little fire and was cleaning up some of my gear That's when I heard a "Whoo-up in camp" softly floating over the pine trees At first I thought it was ole Freddie come a ridin' out to shoot the breeze "Come on in" I yelled right back to him my hand sittin firmly on my gun When in rides this old bearded cowboy looked to be bout a hundred and one Well he said his name to be Johnson so with that I passed him my name too Asked him if he'd like to sit a spell maybe share a little of my stew For I had gauged him up to be a decent and right honest man you see ‘Cause he seemed to hold himself just right and by the soft way he spoke to me So after we tossed down our bedrolls and we had hunkered down near the flames That's when Johnson pulled his red eye flask we started toasting old cowboy names Those names like Billy Brooks, Bose Ikard Goodnight, Conrad Kohrs and Otto Franc Olly Loving, John Chisum and with each name we tipped the flask and drank As all the old cowboys tend to do we reminisced ‘bout the olden days And all the things we used to do while living the good cowpuncher’s ways How these here youngsters nowadays ain't got no clue ‘bout how things used to be When a man could go from here to there live and ride the range completely free Johnson had seen just fifteen summers when he started his first cattle drive Sixty more winters have passed him by he said his luck had kept him alive For him riding herd out on the range is the only life he's ever knowed He said he would never trade that way for no diamonds, jewels or gold Well just about dawn the next morning after we shook hands and parted ways I knew that I too would never leave behind me, these good old cowboy days So when you find my bones out on the range with my gun and saddle by my side Just know I was still living the cowboy ways when I took my final ride