In this long letter from Dart, he has a lot to grouse about. Imagine his joy to learn he had landed the duty of keeping those shiny new bathrooms he’d admired yesterday clean. Well, somebody has to do it, and if he does it long enough, he may end up less disgruntled about sea duty!

His second complaint is about the cloudburst that soaked the navy yard today. “Filled the streets and walks to ankle depth…and we had to traipse around in all that sop to get our check-in interviews at the classification center, the war bond office, the insurance office and tha medical department. After all that, I learned just in time to go to the mess hall for an early dinner because I had to stand a 4 to 8 watch outside. Luckily the rain stopped in time for the setting sun to cast a huge double rainbow, so the whole day wasn’t wasted.”

Dart heard from Fred, who has either gone ‘off his beam,’ or has gotten lazy, because he has decided not to write any more letters until after he’s discharged. He told Dart that he’s only able to write bitter diatribes about his branch of the service and if he ever wants to be a different sort of guy, he needs to start being that now. He’ll devote the remainder of time in the Marines to sleeping and sketching.

Dart was, indeed, allowed to indicate his choice in assignments. He requested 1) shore duty along the east coast, 2) battleship duty, and 3) large aircraft carrier duty. But all of his staff reccomendations were for sea duty and since his points are so low, he knows he’ll be sent back to sea. Now, as a year ago, the only real question is when, and on what.

He asks Dot to take it easy sharing his writings with others. He’d like to use some of the stuff he’s written as background for stories he writes in the future, when people are not so tired of reading war stories. He’s glad she thinks they’re good enough for wide distribution, though.

His penny collection has suffered from malnutrition. It’s growing, but far too slowly. “I must remember to order odd-priced items on the menu and to ride seven-cent street cars instead of 10-cent buses. Wire is about three or four cents a foot, so with our pennies, we can have at least that. When we have three or four hundred feet of wire, I’ll figure the cost of window glass or of a cubic yard of excavating or something like that and we can save nickels and pennies.” It would appear they’ve decided to buy their house piecemeal!

His earlier mood seems to have lifted, perhaps just from writing to Dot. He tells her about his wonderful 72-hour liberty with Hal and Ira. The weather was beautiful, New England was clear, fresh and colorful and they had some great meals. While he was away, he and Ira were able to crate up the stuff they “stole” from the Haggard and shipped it to their home addresses. His favorite part was seeing the harvest moon over Lake Sunapee and dreaming of the day he will share such an experience with Dot.

In response to her letter, he assures her that if there were some way for them to stick to their plan and get married before she was 21, he’d do it. There’s a chance, but not much of one. He would have to be discharged in time to begin school next September, all of his poor grades from Case would have to be accepted as credit at another college, he’d need to complete 2-1/2 years of classes in 18 months and he’d have to secure a good job. He fears that three years down the road is probably a close guess for their nuptuals.

He regrets to inform her that neither he nor the admiral are able to attend her formal dance on November 3.

Saying goodnight to her now via letter feels easier to him than having to say goodnight to her when she was in his arms. “I’d much rather have it so that our goodnights could be murmured in the midst of an all-night, all time embrace. So goodnight, my love, my own Dot.”

Dot is so happy that she started her daily letter to Dart in the early morning before leaving for classes. What caused this euphoria? The simple fact that he has seen Lake Sunapee and loves it as much as she does. “How can our life together be anything but perfect when we start out in such a Heavenly place as that? ”

Her next paragraph, written later in the day, is a bit gloomier. She’s terribly blue that he’ll be going overseas again. She knew it was likely, but she prayed they wouldn’t have to endure yet another long-distance separation. But immediately, she rallies and tries to look on the bright side. “When the time comes that we may be together always, think how much more it will mean to us after having lived through such periods of lonliness.” That’s our girl.

She tells him how much his phone call to her folks meant to the family and then signs off to study…you guessed it…English.