Dart begins, “Today I’ve been in a mood almost like the one you had the morning we played at tennis. I don’t want anything to eat, I’m too bored to sleep, and I don’t want to do any work or any play, and I can’t do a good job of either.”

Skipping dinner, he went to the basement to work on his train layout. After mucking up everything he touched, he gave up and walked off the job, leaving his workbench a mess and tools abandoned.

His exams are over. He’s sure he botched psychology and may have done as poorly on political science. The latter exam consisted of 60 multiple choice questions and two essays. He may have done okay on one of the essays, and he has Dot to thank. You see, he learned about the subject matter last night when he should have been writing to her.

What he refers to as his “gravy train” schedule of this summer session will be out the window for his upcoming term. He’s taking political science and psychology again, but one is the first period of the day and the other is the last. It’s the ultimate “split shift.” Maybe he’ll be able to get some of his studying and homework done while he’s hanging around campus, freeing up his evenings for longer letters to Dot.

He was hoping for a day off on Monday before the start of his new term, but that’s when the school scheduled him for that vocational testing he wrote about.

The big news is that Fred is engaged! Wow! That was fast! He’s getting married to a woman named Betty Evans, whom Dart seems to know slightly. Maybe she was from their class at Shaw High School. Dart seems to think she’s Fred’s intellectual equal, and he hopes Fred will be able to stop his “promiscuous ways” after marriage.

And now, he asks Dot’s forgiveness. He has been slow in answering her letters, but he’s in such a funk tonight that it just wouldn’t do to make a try tonight. He’ll give it his best try tomorrow. Meanwhile, he hopes she was able to see the Northern Lights that filled the sky over Cleveland tonight. “All colors, with flashes, rays, curtains – all the usual and the rare effects. Eerie as can be, but awesomely beautiful.”

#          #          #

Dot begins by bragging about the children she’s been babysitting. She renewed her acquaintance with young Carter, who as a young gentleman of 5 has the manners of an adult and a vocabulary a mile long. Chucky Pecsok, who will be 5 in October, read her a story! She believes this younger generation will take over the Earth soon.

Now she turns her attention to answering four of Dart’s letters. First, it sounds as though he’s been doing so much work on his train set that the railroad club will have plenty to see when they come in August.

She thinks renting a tandem bike and going on a picnic while he’s here this September sounds like a dreamy idea. So does his thought about having a picnic on his uncle’s abandoned farm next summer. When she thinks about how recent last summer seems to her, she hopes that the time between now and June 1947 will pass just as quickly. “It’s just got to!”

She realizes what dangerous temptation they will face in September, but they must resist it. Yes, they’ve broken some promises, but there’s one promise they’ve not broken, and they must not, until they have earned the privilege. “We must remember, Dart, that we will never earn the privilege if we don’t keep that one important vow. I think you’re more afraid of yourself than I am. “We’ve both got it in us to suppress those desires if we don’t allow them to become too strong within us. We must be able to recognize when we’re ‘playing with fire’ and have sense enough to put that fire out before it gets out of control. …It’s something neither of us can do alone, and we must make every effort to help one another.”

She certainly hopes Dart’s textbook is correct about her “ailment” clearing up after 7 or 8 years. “Does it happen to mention what one does to endure 7 or 8 years while waiting for ‘simple maturity?'” You know, I’m a little miffed about that whole discussion in Dart’s psychology book. First, what do menstrual cramps have to do with psychology? Does it fall under the category of what hysterical, irrational creatures women are? Is it used as an example of how they are the fragile, sensitive half of humanity? Second, can one imagine for a moment that large numbers of young men suffered debilitating pain for several days every month? Is it possible that the medical field would simply pat them on the head and say, “Gee, little man, I’m sorry you’re feeling so poorly, but it’ll be fine some day when you grow up.’? No! All the scientific and medical resources would be laser focused on finding real relief for those poor young men who suffered so. After all, they must be kept healthy and active enough to fight wars!

Dot agrees with Dart’s suggestion that they consult both a doctor and a minister, but feels that should wait until just before they’re married. “I even condescend to read a book on the subject on our  honeymoon, if you promise that’s not all we do. I believe this should be a case of ‘practice what you read.'” Why, Dot! You’re quite the little vixen!

Now, dear Reader, I should prepare you for a little shock. In the final paragraph of this letter, Dot proposes that they destroy all of their love letters to each other! The thought just about turns my blood to ice water as I contemplate the treasure that would have been lost had they followed through on that idea. It seems, what with the sizzling topics Dart has been addressing in his recent letters, Dot lives in fear that a curious teenage Doug may go snooping around and find those letters. “It would break my heart to burn any of your wonderful letters, but what else can I do with them? I have over 800 of ’em and they present a problem where storage is concerned. However, I’ll never destroy one of them unless you consent to destroy mine. PLEASE!! The ones I’ve written since you were discharged aren’t worth the three cents I wasted on them anyway. Come. let’s be sensible about this.”

Do you see how close we came to losing these letters? I’m grateful for Dart’s sentimental nature that in all probability saved the greatest gift I’ve ever had – the opportunity to read and share these letters.

No letters on the 27th, but Dot will be back on the 28th