Business is slow for Dot at the park today. All but one of her regular kids is at the beach “as every smart person should be.” There’s just one mild-mannered girl with her today, Pat Hawthorne. Pat has just told Dot that her family is moving next week so she won’t be at the playground after that. Dot will miss her and wonders how she’ll manage without the calming presence of this nice, quiet girl when the other kids run wild.

“Thank heaven there’s a tree on the playground. It’s about 93 degrees in the sun, but being right by the mill pond and having the shade of an apple tree to sit under makes it quite comfortable. It sounds like I lead a hard life, doesn’t it?”

Gale and her daddy dropped by the playground this evening to bring Dot a letter from Dart. She’ll never do that again! The kids at the park teased her so badly about blushing that she’ll never live it down. From now on, she’ll only open his letters in the privacy of her own bedroom.

If she remembers correctly, tomorrow will mark one year since Dart’s ship got into San Francisco. She’s still kicking herself that she missed the one phone call she’d been waiting what seems like a lifetime for – the one when she hears her fiance’s voice saying that he’s home, safe and sound.

Let the “authorities” say what they will about beds, but to her way of thinking, there’s nothing like a double for a happy marriage. Just ask her parents!

She hasn’t purchased a typewriter yet. She wants to get the money in the bank first before she starts splitting it up a thousand different ways. By the end of this week, she will have earned $8.50 over and above her regular salary. She still owes El quite a sum, and she’d like to be able to find a way to have the work done on her teeth before the end of summer.

There’s a secretarial school up the road in Stamford. If she’s lucky, she could work days and take classes at night, hoping to earn more on the former than she spends on the latter.

Of course they’ll see the moon together at Lake Sunapee. If she has her way, they’ll take a moonlight spin across the lake, the likes of which Lake Erie could never offer. They could borrow the neighbor’s rowboat, which is more sea worthy, but less romantic than the canoe. And she promises she won’t rock the boat while they’re in it.

She plans to get up early to clean her room and then be at the Millers by 9:30. “With all I have to do I still miss you constantly. In fact, I miss you so much, it’s worth beginning another page to tell you about it. She proceeds to tell him about it in poetry form –  a little ditty she calls “Pome.”

I count the days until you are here.

It’s down to 50, but seems like a year.

I work my days off to try to forget,

But Chris and Eric simply won’t let

Me go a minute without speaking your name

And recalling the fun that we had when you came

Last summer and we went out on the boat.

They thrive on giving me lumps in my throat.

But to know you and love you is some consolation.

I’ll keep that in mind and lick any situation.

I miss you, my Darling, with each breath I take.

So hurry and come, ‘cuz my heart is at stake.

She signs it, “Yours always, if you still want me after that mess.”

Be back here on the 21st.