It’s 2:00 in the morning. Dart is exhausted, ill-prepared for his American literature test, and too tired to study it any more. Yet he sits down to write to Dot so that she won’t feel the disappointment of an empty mailbox in two days.

He cannot afford to get less than a B in one of his major classes, but he can’t seem to keep all these Colonial writers straight. He, like most Americans, has grown up knowing a bit of what Thomas Paine and Tom Jefferson contributed to early American thought, but he is supposed to distinguish among 30 obscure writers of that time; their significance to Colonial politics, their views on the Revolution, etc.

“With our hero worship of Washington, Jefferson, Paine, and some others, it’s surprising to learn that there was so much opposition to the Revolution; opposition from within our own ranks. Many of their arguments were pretty sound, too. It’s surprising also to read the thoughts of these men, both for and against the American Revolution, whose thoughts are easily applicable today and might help us to solve today’s problems, if we hadn’t come to discredit sound thinking, fair play, decency, and reason.”

He must sleep. He says that writing this letter may have helped him on that test.

“Sometime, if I search and wait long enough, I’ll find the ideal way to express my deep love, longing and devotion for you.”