Another brief note dashed off before muster is called. “In a few minutes they check us to see if we’re all here. (all present I mean) Of course we’re not ‘all here.’ I’m not only ‘half here,’ but I’m ‘there’ (where you are) in spirit. Let’s leave that subject alone, for it’s neither here nor there. At any rate, too darn much of me’s here.”

Did you get all that?

He has a mountain of clothes to wash, so as soon as muster is over, he and the boys will make a mad chase to the wash house and scrub the daylights out of their stuff before it gets dark.

Dot’s letter is also a simple one-page job. She’s writing from her new home at the Millers. She describes quite a nice set-up with a bedroom and a living room, complete with two sofas, a fireplace plus a radio and phonograph. She needs to get up at 7:30 to start caring for the boys, so she wants to hit the sack.

She tells Dart she took her mother to see Christmas Holiday this evening, but she prefers the light and carefree roles Deanna Durbin used to play.

As she bids Dart goodnight, she informs him that his photo is in place by her new bed. It has already garnered two more fans in Mr. and Mrs. Miller. But she assures him they can’t love it as much as she does.