GENNEVOTE.

While you go to work,
I am going to tidy the household.

C H O I R.

To work, to work.
(The Harvesters prepare to work; Gennevote & Rosine take their tools into the hut.)

R U S T A U T, to a young Harvester.

Young man, you must in your springtime
Pay the tribute of your new strength.

(To an Old Man.)

And you, whose weakness is the effect of your years,
Make ties for the sheaves.
I do not yet see all our Seyeux harvesters/reapers...
One always remains behind schedule.
I am going to dock a quarter-day from those
Who will only arrive after the hour.

R O S I N E.

Mother, they are coming from everywhere:
Everyone is at work: I am leaving.

R U S T A U T, in the middle of the Harvesters.

I do not yet have all my people.
Where are those people from Champagne whom I had booked?
Could they have stayed asleep?
Without ceasing I must make my rounds.

S C E N E IV.

C A N D O R, followed by the rest of the Harvesters,

R U S T A U T.

C A N D O R.

HEre they are, my friend Rustaut;
You always get angry too soon.

Seyeux reapers is a term used in the Provinces & in the environs of Paris, to designate the people who cut the wheat.