Dart’s letter begins innocuosly enough, with him thanking Dot for her letter and the gum. More small talk follows about his tendency to be as easily embarrassed as Dot’s housemate Evelyn, and his color improving since he’s been up out of bed.

But then comes the bad news. First, his thigh has swollen up again, and he’s been ordered back to bed, with foot elevated and still. Then, the doctor told him it would be many more weeks of convelescence before he could leave the hospital. When Dart asked about his sick leave, the doctor tersely informed him that he did not approve of sick leaves, nor would he sign Dart’s application for one! “Naturally, I feel like committing mayhem around here. Today marks exactly 105 days, 15 weeks, in hospitals.”

His hopes of seeing Dot on March 24th have been crushed. In fact, he may not be discharged until after she has returned to Greenwich for the summer. If that is the timing of his leave, he may not see her again until the war is over! I can scarcely bear to think about the pain and disappointment this news must have caused these two young people.

He wonders if his news will distress Dot to the point of not wanting to write to him anymore. He even suggests that she find another date for her April prom, adding the wistful request that if, by some miracle, he could get to Cleveland by then, she drop the other fellow and go to the prom with him. One can only guess what it must have cost Dart to write that paragraph, but I think he felt honor-bound to give Dot an out.

Declaring that he was too blue to write a decent letter, he decides to switch over to answering hers. The most endearing part was when he mentioned Dot’s little niece, Toni Gale and Dot’s suggestion that he might want to wait fot her to grow up. “Toni Gale is really a cute little gitl. However, I don’t think I’ll wait for her to grow up. It will be a long enough time for you to become 21 and fancy free. And, to put it mildly, you’re a pretty good choice, as far as I can see now.”

In answer to Dot’s question, he reports that his father never complained about damage to the car after their date when Dart allowed Dot to shift gears on the old Ford. “Those horrible noises it made that night were only its purring gratitude for a good ‘roughing-up’.”

Dart reveals that he’s never been a fan of the Bumsteads radio program because of the noise and chaos it embodies. He loves the “Blondie” comic strip, however.

He congratulated Dot on her good score for the punctuation test and bragged that he made only one punctuation error in his 6500 word term paper!

Claiming that he can’t stay blue for very long, especially after telling his troubles to someone, he urges Dot not to take his news too badly, and to keep her chin up.

Dot thanks Dart for the two letters she received today and commented on the mix-up he wrote about where he received a letter from a friend of his. Unfortunately, the friend had put a letter to his folks in Dart’s envelope and, presumably Dart’s letter into his folks’ envelope. Dot feigned shock that Dart and his pals might use language a bit too salty for parents to read. “But then, I guess you’d be rather shocked if you heard some of us slip up once in awhile. Especially the flaxen-haired, blue-eyed innocent (looking) girls around here.”

She had not realized until Dart’s report that Negro and white sailors were housed in the same wards in Navy hospitals. She comments that although the Negro Dart described didn’t sound too pleasant, “There are ever so many repulsive whites, too, so we have little room to talk.”

She explained that she will receive a report card this week, and seems to dread it. She described the citizenship grades she gets which score her on a myriad of points, both in the cottage and in classes.

Announcing she is in a foul mood, she decides to close before depressing him.