In spite of receiving a great airmail letter plus a postcard from Dot yesterday, Dart only has time for a quick letter tonight. He confesses to spending most of the day loafing and he’s run out of time.

It could be that the reason for his unproductive day is another cold he seems to have caught. He plans to try to rid himself of it by getting more sleep tonight.

On Dot’s previous recommendation, he saw “Bathing Beauty” last night and agrees it was a pretty good picture. (Or as Dart playfully writes, “a perty fair pitcher.”) He must admit that with all those beautiful women with “undraped charms,” he still likes Dottie best.

After signing off with love, he adds a P. S. “I can’t let all this lovely space go to waste without telling you again how much I love you. But again I can’t find words to express it. Love goes on, words or no words.

Dot’s long letter actually covers two days. She’s so sorry that she made the comment about his letters seeming different. It wasn’t a complaint – just an observation. They seemed short and vague to her and now she thinks it’s because he really didn’t have the time to write. She’s happy to get anything he has the time or inclination to send her.

She confesses that she has had the same difficulty mastering the back stroke that Dart has. She also had to do the deep water, fully clothed jump to pass her life-saver test at camp. She jokes that her true handicap was her shoes. They are so big that when they filled with water, she sank to the bottom.

She picks the letter up again the next evening after a long day caring for Chris and Eric. She comments that they’re cute kids, but they take a lot of tendin’.

She’s happy to read that Dart is finding swimming more enjoyable. In her next letter, she plans to send some photos they took at Lake Sunapee to “help show you why, when we have a beautiful lake like that, we love the water so much.”

She doesn’t object at all when he crows about his good grades. “I can remember (once) having the same feeling and it was wonderful.” She wants to keep hearing about his success so she can celebrate with him.

In response to his question, she answers that they met on September 25th in the year of our lord nineteen forty-three. She can’t believe it’s been nearly a year, but even harder to believe is that she survived 17 years without knowing him.

Like him, she enjoys the memories of their few dates on an hourly basis. Memories are so comforting and can brighten her darkest hours. Best of all, no one can ever take them away.

Dart had asked what was new with her sweet friend Cynthia. In truth, Dot doesn’t know too much about what’s happening with her now. She’s studying hard at school and holding down a job in the cafeteria. She plans to be at Dot’s graduation in February, so maybe Dart will have a chance to renew his acquaintance with her then. “She’s certainly one of the swellest girls I’ve ever known.”

Dot refers to Dart’s letter from September 3 in which he asks if she noticed the full moon recently. “Sailor, when you’re right on Lake Sunapee with tall pine trees all around you and a full yellow moon reflecting its beauty on the shimmering water, you don’t ‘notice’ a moon. You sit and gaze at it, wishing it weren’t just a picture you were holding, but the ‘real thing’.” (Dart, I would assume.)

To set things straight, she is not bored with his shop talk. She only wants him to know that she can’t make any meaningful comments about it because she doesn’t understand much of it. She teases him about being a genius, but she hopes he’ll never change.

Mrs. Miller says Dart can move into their house when he visits, as long as he doesn’t take Dot away.