One-hundred five words is all Dart could manage today. He has bad news, but he is not telling Dot what it is – he’s hoping it will pass.

Also, if he is not well in 27 days he can be given a medical discharge from the Navy, which he does not want.

He sends his love.

Dot liked Dart’s “poem” about kissin’, but since she hasn’t “mastered the art,” she’s unsure if the poem is true. She does recall one kiss in particular ‘though…

She asked Dart whether the Yanks or the Rebs won the battle over the ward’s radio. She explains that there is war raging in her room and she cannot understand why four seniors cannot get along without throwing tantrums. Andy seems to fly off the handle much faster than the others, and is slow to “fly back onto the handle.” Dot thinks everyone’s nerves are raw because they all want school to be over.

Continuing an on-going point of conversation, she agrees that the Chamberlain clan is a tall one. She is disappointed to be the shortest member of her family.  She writes that it was always her ambition to be 5’8″, but she meant tall – not wide. Then she goes on a rant about how Dart should face facts that she is not really “right-sized.” She bears the scars of her brother’s merciless teasing about how fat she is, and says she can take the truth from Dart. (Note to readers: Dot was NOT fat! She was certainly curvy, and always had a soft, hour-glass figure. But, as in so many other aspects of herself, she was self-conscious about her looks.)

She commiserates with Dart about being lonely, homesick and sometimes “lovesick.” She mentions a period about a year before when she had a crush on a college friend of her sister’s. They corresponded for a short time, although he never indicated any special feelings for Dot. He entered the Army and no one has heard from him since. She writes “This year, I do get very lonely, and I don’t mean for Mom to come tuck me in.”

She signs off with “Yours til I’m as thin as you are, and at the rate we’re both going, that’ll be forever.”