“In a few hours, this day, which is more than half gone here, will dawn on you, in Greenwich. I hope that it will be a happy one for you, Dot. And I hope that you keep on having happy birthdays until long after you stop counting them as ‘another year gone by.'”
Dart reminds her that the occasion of her birthday marks another special occasion for which they must exchange a kiss when they see each other next. He hopes she’s keeping a tally of such kisses, because he’s lost track. “I hope we have some time for some plain, ordinary ‘in love’ kissing once these special ones have been passed back and forth. The next leave will probably be quite a bit longer than that last 52-hour job I had in November, so I don’t think we’ll have any trouble from that score.”
There’s one concern he has regarding that leave; he’s worried he may not be able to surprise her completely as she has asked. There’s always some difficulty in pulling off such a surprise, but he promises there will be a surprise element in it. Then he says something strange, under the circumstances which we know, but Dot does not. He says the Haggard has been at sea for 19 months, and is capable of being out that many more, so it’s hard to predict when his leave may come. Now, we all know that the Haggard has been mortally wounded and is limping her way back to the States to be converted to scrap. Is Dart in denial about his ship’s destiny? Is he only writing that line to throw Dot off the scent about how soon he may be home? Is he proving to the censors that he can be trusted not to reveal critical information by deliberately misstating the ship’s capabilities? It’s a question that will likely remain unanswerable. This treasure trove of letters provides such great detail about the life and times of Dot and Dart, but there will always be mysteries.
There’s another rather cryptic passage as he writes about the interesting recreation they had in their last port before setting out to sea again. He can’t tell her what the situation was, but he vows to fill her in when he can.
The latest word from his folks is that they’d received his request for information about how engagement announcements should be handled. That request arrived the day of Burke’s high school graduation, so the letter he now has is simply a statement from his parents that they will write their “treatise on accepted customs and traditions” as soon as all the hoopla has died down at home. Now, if they write, the mail will be held up while the ship is out to sea. Dart hopes it won’t take long to start getting mail again.
With a comment that his parents would like to have one or both of the Easter photos of Dot, he closes, with his love.
