Having begun countless letters with the words “Dearest Dot,” Dart now proclaims that he shouldn’t use that expression because it implies he has more than one “dear Dot” in his life. Still, he likes the superlative sound of it, and so he begins again with “Dearest Dot.”

He has five unanswered letters from Dot which he hopes to get through tonight. He enjoyed the story about little Chris when she picked him out of his bed to cuddle with him in his sleep. Again Dart observes the mutual affection between Dot and her charges. He gets a kick out of that.

He agrees that all the stories found in books and movies about true love are coming true for them. Their friendship has grown into something very special. Now, all their hopes and faith in God and each other must prevail so that they may live the future they desire. For him, that includes building their little house “or its descendant.” The only other plan Dart has for the future is “keeping steady company” with Dot.

Her story about the fight with her family intrigued Dart. He likes her philosophy about looking on the positive side and not despairing until there is a reason to, but he thinks he tends to be more on the emotional side, like El. He lost his ability to be positive recently until he received great letters from Dot and from Fred that helped get him back on track.

As a result of her pleading, he says he’s waking up to a few of her faults, and he loves her anyway. Now he hopes she’ll do the same with his faults. He hopes their faults will cancel each other out, and he’s confident he can overlook anything because of his love for her.

He begs her not to worry about her weight. He fell in love with her just the way she is. He still loves her. He will always love her, regardless of her weight. “Now, if you can put up with my weak body with no weight at all, and my often quick temper and sudden changes of mood, you’re doing quite well.”

Time has flown and he must end his letter, but not without a plea that she take good care of herself. If anything should ever happen to her, his world would collapse.

Dot’s first letter of the day is very brief – mostly saying she babysat for Gale last night with a friend and spent so much time talking about Dart that she had no time to write to him. One more tidbit is that this is the coldest December 3 in Greenwich since 1875 – a bitter 19 degrees.

The second note is not much longer than her first. She babysat for a new customer today – a 7-year old boy whose cuteness has mostly vanished. He was quite the card shark, however. He asked if she’d play rummy with him and she agreed, fearing she’d have to find a way to keep her victory from being too big. He cleaned her clock! During the game, he made a comment that shocked her. He was studying his hand as well as the discard pile, when he suddenly said, “What the hell. I may as well make life a little interesting,” as he scooped up the entire pile. She confirms that he was a perfectly nice little boy other than that “inappropriate” comment. She quips, “I’ll get educated yet, even if it’s only by the kids I take care of.”

El spent the evening packing for her trip to Providence while Doug was having a party with eight teenage boys downstairs, so the house was anything but calm and quiet.

“I cleaned my room and darned stockings and if you can find anything exciting about that, you’re a better man than I. But who’s denying that?”