“These here-now days are sure a-flyin’ by fer all git out. But the nights – they’s a-makin’ up fer all the hustle days is doin’.”  So says Dart. He also declares that he better get a lot more school work done or he’ll be ending this vacation in worse shape than he started it. Even though he’s been staying up until nearly dawn some nights, he’s getting his eight hours of sleep – a habit he hopes to continue when classes start up again.

This vacation happens to come at mid-term, so he has as much time left of classes as he’s had since Dot was here.

Before he can settle down to school work during the day he must dig in and clean up his room. It’s so dirty now that he expects weeds to start sprouting from his floor any day.

He checked into the fares for those boat rides he’d mentioned previously, and he thinks they’re quite reasonable. These are revivals of the trips that ran on the lake for many years. The old boats were condemned or used by the US Navy as scrap to build aircraft carriers. Now there’s a new company using smaller boats on the same old routes.

He forgot to mention a detail about that chat with Mr. Carter last week. There were a couple of other guys there, including Fred, who’s taking a different class with Carter. Dart reports that “Fred’s okay. He’s still a little cynical, but so am I. He’s toned down a little.”

“You say you can’t cook, yet you describe how people gobble down your cakes. All those folks must have been gosh-awful  hungry!”

He thanks her for the little cartoon she sent and he assures her that he’ll buy a pair of black shoes before coming east. He also warns her that his upcoming letters will be short (for which this blogger is most grateful).

“This is all for tonight, Dot. I love you very much. Roll over and I’ll rub your back and then maybe I can show you a little of how very much I do love you. But you’ll have to kiss me our special way before I show you!

#          #          #

I’m delighted to welcome Dot back to the blog! Even though she only writes 99 pages between now and her final letter on June 8, she’ll add charming variety to what’s said here.

It sounds like not much has changed for Dot since we last heard from her directly. For example, tonight she went straight from her work at the telephone company to babysit at the home of the North family. That must be a new client. She hopes they get home early because she must be back at work at 8:30.

It would appear that Dot has lost  her regular work schedule – perhaps when she had to take off for her appendectomy. Apparently she works a split shift some times, day hours other times, and night hours occasionally, for good measure. She prefers the split shift because she only has to work 7 hours and has her afternoons free to get things done around the house. She’s worried that there will be a strike soon and she’ll have to quit. What kind of job could she get between then and the middle of June, she wonders. (I suspect she could babysit 24-hours a day, if she wanted to.)

Tomorrow night she and Cynthia will be attending the candlelight communion service at church and going for pizza afterwards. They hope Nancy can join them, if her boyfriend Art doesn’t make her a better offer.

She refers to Dart’s recent epistle about paint colors with a complete absence of sarcasm. All she says is that it would take her a while to come up with a similar chart. She thinks that while luster paint may be easier to clean, it might be harsh on the eyes. She’ll let him decide.

She sets about answering his other recent letters. March 28: If he says he likes the silhouette, he must be trying to be nice. No one else likes it. She agrees that a boat trip to Canada is a fine idea for later this summer – if they can afford it. She loves having things like that to look forward to. She believes that their mutual enjoyment of outdoor activities certainly adds to their companionship. Oh, how she wants to be the ideal companion for him! And, by the way, she assures him that he is already vital to her!

March 25: “Every time you tell me how much is in our account, it seems to be in the $70-range. Maybe I just figure wrong.”

March 26: “Don’t get mad about your school work. DO something about it! (She says, almost as if she knew what she was talking about.)”

Marcy 27: “Cynthia also gave me a blow-by-blow description of your freak  snow storm. Leave it to Ohio to be different when it comes to weather. …Congratulations on having a writing style. Congratulations also on having an article accepted by Skyline. Be sure to send it to me, won’t you?”

“UGH!! (My only comment on your beard.)”

She’ll be attending the sunrise service at church, followed by the sunrise breakfast, for which Eleanor is the Chair. Then she has to go in to work.

Their get-away plans for the wedding may need a little polishing, but they’re all set, for the most part. Both couples will get from the church to the reception at the house by car. The brides thought they’d pack their suitcases the night before the wedding and lock them in the trunk of the car so no one can meddle with them. Norm and El are working on the same plans.

She’s alarmed by his weight loss and orders him to stop. If he keeps losing and she keeps gaining, she’ll weigh more than him at the wedding, and that would never do!

It is probably much better that they couldn’t be together for his vacation. “When you come here for the wedding in June, Dart, we’ll have to be very careful. I’ll want to get to bed early every night anyway, ‘cuz it’ll take me ages to get to sleep.”

“To be perfectly frank, Dart, I was a little disappointed in you that night in January, too. Anyway, it’s all over now and we did profit from our mistake. As long as we can continue to settle our differences like that before we go to sleep, it will help a great deal.”

Her cousin Betty went to the hospital last night, hoping the baby wouldn’t be an April Fool. If it’s a boy, he will be Christopher. If it’s a girl, she’ll be named after Betty’s beloved late sister, Jane.

“There are about 10 girls at work who are about to leave to have babies. I feel like an outcast. But then, I guess I’d feel more like an outcast if I were leaving for the same reason!”

The Norths finally came home, so Dot ends the letter at her own place. She has enclosed a clipping about the two Chamberlain brides from the Sunday paper. “Imagine two of us on the society pages in one day! ” She asks that Dart return the clipping to her for placement in their scrapbook, and she sends him “loads of love.”