This is the first day in several that we have a letter from both Dot and Dart. We’ll start, as usual, with Dart’s.

In his first letter of the day, he reports that mail call was a disappointment. Nothing from home or Greenwich. He calculates that tomorrow or Friday he should begin to receive mail from Dot.

He’s thinking of taking in some of the sights of either ‘Frisco or Oakland this evening, if his headache subsides. He didn’t get much sleep last night, substituting thoughts of Dot instead. Who’s children was she watching? What was she doing at that moment? He mentally took several little trips around Greenwich with her.

He sums up his mood in one word – lonesome.

His next letter written later the same evening has a jollier tone. He had just received an airmail letter from home with the news that his mother had already mailed Dot’s photo and some letters from her. He tells her he awaits their arrival with fluttering heart.

You can tell he’s feeling more upbeat because he’s inspired to write a lovely description of the bay that surrounds Treasure Island, summing it up with “the whole scene looks like something from National Geographic.”

Always in sync with Dart, Dottie also writes two letters today. Her first is a very quick note, dashed off in five minutes before she scurried off to work. She babysat last night, leaving no time to write, but she promises a more complete job when she gets home this evening.

In the second letter, Dot opens with high praise of Dart’s letter of July 12. That’s the one when he provides such a wonderful description of the western states, as seen from his train window. Says Dot, “If I never travel in my life, I think I will, never-the-less have a very realistic idea of what the west is like. You have the best descriptive vocabulary I have ever seen and you certainly did a great job of giving me a word picture of the country you were passing through.” Then she asked the question he must have heard countless times – “Did you ever think of writing any travelogues?”

Having received none of his letters from Treasure Island yet, she asks about his classes and activities at his new base. She also wonders if he might see some of San Francisco without spending much money. “It seems to me there ought to be places open to service men (especially such a nice one) which wouldn’t set you back much, if any.”

She acknowledges how difficult it is to save money, admitting she’s saved only $70 since returning to Greenwich to work full time. “I’ll never get to college if I don’t go at it more seriously than that.”

In other “news” – his airmail letter arrived before the ones he sent later, but she thinks if they write regularly, it isn’t worth the extra cost. The weather is getting cooler in Greenwich and she hopes that doesn’t signal the end of summer already. She wonders if he has received the letter containing the photographs she sent to his Cleveland address. “I don’t think we look embarrassed, do you? I think they look quite natural, considering.”

On her half-day off tomorrow, she plans to get to the beach. She is determined to get a tan because she hates walking around looking so pale.

In spite of her intentions of writing a nice long letter, her eyelids are getting heavy and she must turn in.