It takes Dart eight pages to answer Dot’s 12-pager, plus bring her up to date on his life. He’s happy to have read about all her daily activities since leaving school. He envies her the big family dinners when all he gets is Navy chow with his fellow patients. He also appreciates that she was so nice to the English sailors who were so far from home. He expresses hope that he will get such hospitality if he ever finds himself away from the US at Christmas time.

He teases Dot a little bit about her good old New England winter. “Too danged cold for any good use and not even any snow to make it all worth while.” I got a little chuckle over his inquiries about this “Doug” she’s always writing about. I know that’s her 14-year old brother, but apparently she has forgotten to mention that to Dart.

He compliments her smile. He raves about her fudge. He appreciates that she’s sweet enough to still blush about some things. I think he likes the girl. He dovotes entirely too much space to clarifying that while he doesn’t intend to have any dates until he can have another date with her, he has no intention of asking her to refuse dates with other guys. He believes an exclusive arrangement should wait until they know each other better in person. Easy for a sick-bay sailor in an all-male hospital to give up dates, huh?