But the most dispiriting part of the commencement was the length of time to wait before a crop came.

According to her calculations that represented so much idle capital sunk, instead of being rapidly turned over.

However, she consoled herself with the pig-sty, in which were half a dozen animals, whose feeding she often personally superintended.
The potatoes failed, and did not pay for the digging; the currant bushes were blighted; the strawberries were eaten by snails, and, of course, no asparagus could be cut for three years; a little item, this last, quite overlooked.

The pigs returned exactly the sum spent upon them; there was neither profit nor loss, and there did not appear any chance of making a fortune out of pork.

The lady had to abandon the experiment quite disheartened, and found that, after all her care and energy, her books showed a loss of fifteen pounds.