Today, Uncle Tom drove Dart and Burke out to see their father. Pop is liking the place more each day and has even gained three pounds. He has plenty of time to read and lots of reading material. He was very pleased to get a nice letter from Dot, which made Dart proud. As always, he appreciates her thoughtfulness.
As soon as they passed through the hospital gates on the way home, they got a flat tire. It was a mighty cold job getting it changed.
He made a deposit in his mother’s bank account and then promptly lost the bank book. It’s not as bad as if he’d lost the savings book, but he’s sure his mother is not going to be pleased. Maybe he’ll get lucky and find it before she discovers it’s missing.
Since he hadn’t seen Homer in a while, he called him today to see if he’d like to go out. Homer had been out nearly every night of vacation so he wasn’t eager to go out again. In the end, it worked out well because it gave Dart some time to work on his little engine. He made great progress and is highly pleased with the results. It’s almost done now and it looks very impressive.
He’s feeling very guilty about owing Ruth Chamberlain a letter for so long. He has no real excuse, which seems to amplify the guilt. He’d like to be able to tell Dot to tell her mother that a letter is coming soon, but he doesn’t know if he could keep that promise.Dot’s letter with the requested article arrived today. He’d like to keep the article a few more days so that he can read it through a few more times.
Dot has asked if he’d mind if they moved their wedding to one day later, to June 20th so that the family can have a big high school graduation party for Doug. That would put it the day after her 21st birthday. He responds that he wouldn’t object too much to waiting an extra day, in spite of hoping he could marry her before she turned 21, but he surely wouldn’t want to wait any longer than that. Still, he agrees that Doug deserves a celebration.
He hopes he’ll be inspired by Dot’s cleaning out of her room at home. He has way too much junk in his room and it gets discouraging. He wouldn’t call himself sentimental about all that “crap”, but he doesn’t know why he holds on to it.
He has more to write but he’s too tired. He wants her to know that he misses her though. “There are little things about you that I miss, Dot. A quick change of expression; the way you look when you’re teasing me; the way you respond so quickly and warmly when I put my arms around you; the way you react to my flattery, your touch when I don’t expect it. Gee, ‘little things’ sure are important in love, aren’t they? I could name some others and some big ones, too.”
“You write a beautiful letter, Dot. Thank you ever so much. I love you, and I want to make a home with you, I love planning and doing and being with you. I love the way you return my love. I want you to be my wife.”
It won’t be long now, Dart.