Dart updates Dottie on some of what’s happening in his neighborhood. First, Burke has planned what he thinks will be his last date with Edie tomorrow night. She’s been running with a fast crowd and doesn’t seem to have time for her old friends. Burke’s not too broken up about it because he’s had some other dates himself. Dot needn’t worry that he’ll be lonely.
Although Dart missed 19 out of 79 questions on his psychology test, things are not so dire as they might appear. His professor explained that he makes the tests so hard that no one can get 100%. But then, after he grades the tests, he puts the top 10% into the A group, the bottom 10% into the F group, then divides the middle into 20% B, 40% C, and 20% D. Dart’s score was the 9th highest out of 133 students, so he’s in the A group.
Last night Pop drilled out the dowels in the legs and body of the broken old buffet and then he, Dart and Helen reassembled the thing with new dowels and glue. The only glue they had on hand was linoleum cement, which they hope will do the trick. Dart claims that product “will hold anything to anything.” After a good cleaning and polishing today, the grand old piece looks pretty swell, in spite of the checkered varnish in some places.
He plans to weigh himself soon. She won’t recognize him if he keeps gaining weight at the rate he’s been going. If Dot has kept to her plan to lose one pound for every one that he’s gained, she’ll be positively skinny. He hopes he can hold onto the weight now that he’s found it.
In preparation for hosting the model railroad club tomorrow night, he’s been spending long hours in the basement. He’s quite proud of the results. Aside from one little thing that will require a bit of tinkering tomorrow, his layout is in pretty good shape. As a bonus, he swept the basement, but his tools away and tidied up his work bench. Lo, and behold, the place actually looks pretty nice.
Turning his attention to Dot’s recent letters, he wonders how much “stepping” out they’ll do at Sunapee. Will he need to pack a suit? He asks her to send the address so that his folks will be able to reach him in case of emergency. Also, so that he can budget his share of gas and meals, can she give him an estimate on what his share might be? If she comes back with him, he must be back on, or before, the morning of September 20.
One of the letters he got from Dot today was the expected refutation of her “top-blowing” letter of the day before. He tells her that the things he wrote that made her so angry he’d written as an attempt at humor which failed completely. He trusts her completely, at all times. “It was a big misunderstanding, Darling, but now that it’s been made clear, I’m still mad that my nature should have been betrayed, ironically, by a letter in which that nature entered only superficially and in attempted humor. Good night, my own darling. I do love you very much.”
# # #
Dot apologizes for “not much of a letter” tonight, but there was no mail from him and not much new around home.
The movie last night was wonderful, but she’d forgotten to take any tissue, so her sleeve was drenched by the time the film came to its happy ending.
She thinks tomorrow is the night of his railroad club meeting, She wishes him well and tells him how much she wishes she could be there to see the progress he’s made on his layout.
Her mother finished making a bedspread for her bedroom which certainly brightens it up. The fabric is a black, brown, tan, red, yellow, orange, blue and green stripe. She knows that sounds gaudy, but it really looks nice. She’ll send him a sample of the fabric if she can find a scrap.
She’s very sleepy, so she must end this here, with all her love.
There are no letters tomorrow, so I’ll continue on the 17th.