Dart says that in spite of her claims of being a “poor, mistreated baby-sitter,” Dot must enjoy the work or she wouldn’t have put that clever ad in the newspaper. He’s eagerly awaiting word on how that first dinner party turned out. He asks if she decided to go into business with El rather than look for a job at a defense plant as she had mentioned once. From his limited observation, defense plants “are not such hot places for young girls to work.”

He sees in the news that Mayor LaGuardia is running New York City in defiance of the curfew laws. “And the New Yorkers call the boys from the South ‘rebels’! Looks like we’ll have to sail the fleet into New York harbor and lambast the city with our pea-shooters.” He wonders if, after putting her little charges to bed, she’s ever had to help some of their parents get to bed, too. “Then, maybe your clients don’t come home stewed.”

He wishes he’d seen “I Love a Soldier,” because of the San Francisco scenes in it. “Did they show any scenes of the bridges or of the city from a cocktail lounge high above it? If not, they missed the two most impressive sights of the city.” He’s surprised that his descriptions of the places he’s seen make her homesick for those places, even though she’s never been to them. “The biggest and most important memories I have which make me homesick are those dealing with eight days separated by a couple of eternities and a millennium.”

Let that sink in for a minute. The eight days he refers to are the ones he’s spent in Dot’s company. Eight days. Think of how far these two have come in their relationship, how much they know about each other, how deep their love has grown – with only eight days together. Such is the power of letters in the hands of two mature, self-aware, honest, and compatible young people.

Now comes a gentle lecture. He asserts that she must never refer to her lovely paragraphs as “corny.” He writes, “Darling, every single word you send me thrills and enthralls me. They’re the nearest thing to your being with me that there could be…Yours are the sweetest and most endearing love letters I’ve ever seen. Lots of fellows sit around and read each other’s mail, laughing at the gentler phrases and thoughts of the writers, but no one except me ever sees your letters. They are Sacred Writings.”

It’s nearly lunch time and not only the Army but also the Navy fights on it’s stomach. As for Dart, he finds it hard to make love on an empty stomach, so he must end this letter, sending all his love.

Dot begins her letter by saying that writing it at work might earn her 10 hours of extra duty, or cost her a job, but spending a few minutes chatting with him is worth the risk.

She was thrilled to get three good letters from him when she went home for lunch today. She was so eager to read them that she forgot to blow on her soup and has suffered a burned tongue.

She’s decided there’s no excuse for her not writing to him every single day, so she begs him not to forgive her anymore. There are women she works with who, according to Dot, have more to do than she does (I find that hard to believe) and they manage to write to their husbands and sweethearts daily. Some of them have been at it for more than three years! Dot prays that the war won’t last anywhere near that long, but if it does, she’ll still be writing. I wonder if she realizes that she’s been writing to Dart on a nearly daily basis for half that long already?

It’s supposed to be a very busy day at the store, with Easter so close, and in most of the departments, that’s true. However, the Young Men’s Shop is deserted.

She continues the letter from home later that day. How nice it is that the Navy is giving him so much practice at painting. By the end of the war he should be an expert at wielding the paint brush. She asks if he’d rather paint a house than a ship. “Good – so would I,” she says, agreeing with his presumed response.

Today she decided to send Dart’s family a little something for Easter to remind them of Dart, so she wired them a plant with a card that said “With love from Dart, via Dot.” She wanted him to know what she’d done in case they mention something to him. I can imagine how much that plant, and Dot’s thoughtfulness will please them. Another thought she had was that his folk’s 25th wedding anniversary is coming up in June. Since she doesn’t trust the timing of the mail, she’s mentioning this now. She’d like him to tell her what he’d like to give them for the occasion and she’ll handle the shopping and shipping. She knows it’ll be more fun for her than for him, but since he’s not exactly in the “Shopping Mart of the World,” she hopes he’ll let her help him out this way. What a thoughtful girl!

Dot gets philosophical as she tells Dart about a discussion she, El and their cousin Betty had after dinner tonight. It seems that economists predict that for at least 10 years after the war ends, prices for nearly everything will climb significantly. Dot claims she has no head for figures, but one thing she has figured out is that money doesn’t mean that much. Granted, one must have the stuff in order to eat, but there’re so many things that are more meaningful. She cites nature as an example and says Spring is the perfect reminder that some of the greatest beauty in the world can be had for free if one simply sits  and drinks in all the splendor. “So – I’ve got it all boiled down to one thing. If you love someone as much as I love you, material wealth matters very little.” As it turned out, Dot and Dart always had “enough,” but there were lots of periods when they didn’t have a penny more than that. Yet they were richly blessed in their long and loving marriage.

It’s 1:30 AM and she is bleary eyed. Good night.