Three more years and the plantation would be a splendid-paying investment.

They could then take yearly trips to Australia, and oftener; and an occasional run home to England--or Hawaii, would come as a matter of course.
He spent his evenings poring over accounts, or making endless calculations based on cheaper freights for copra and on the possible maximum and minimum market prices for that staple of commerce.

His days were spent out on the plantation.

He undertook more clearing of bush; and clearing and planting went on, under his personal supervision, at a faster pace than ever before.

He experimented with premiums for extra work performed by the black boys, and yearned continually for more of them to put to work.