This song, "The Shepherdess in the Field, " like others of the folk songs of the Auvergne region that Canteloube arranged for voice and orchestra, portrays an encounter between a young Auvergne woman and a foreign gentleman or knight, and ends, as does La Pastrouletta e lou Chibalie, (The Shepherdess and the Knight) with the girl outwitting the foreigner, when he makes advances to her. Like most of these Canteloube songs, the music is not as quickly rollicking as more modern European folks songs with the same theme are, but show the influence that Arabic and early church music provided, in somewhat slower, less "jigging" tempi and in the more frequent use of minor intervals. A shepherdess has gone out to tend her flocks, when a gentleman starts to make advances to her. The verse, written in the langue d'oc, refers to him as a "moussuret" (little gentleman), but does not use the usual diminutive for shepherdess (pastrouletto), but refers to her as "pastouro." Already, we know who's going to win this encounter. She tells him to go tie his horse, but "just when he had her, she ran away." The lyrics are somewhat ambiguous, as the word "tenio" has the multiple possible meanings that "have" has in English, but the music, with the cheerful "Tidera la la la la loi!" in the vocal line, and the swift orchestral diminuendo both make it clear that he lost her just when he thought he had her where he wanted her!

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