June 16, 1918

Dearest Myrtle,

The long for, but dreaded fatal missive came last evening and am just now recovering enough to write. My! But it did hit me hard altho I had feared it would come. I was lying in my cozy hammock in dreamland with fairies dancing around me and telling me nice things when a shipmate came in from liberty at 2:00 AM and drive the fairies away and awakened me from my happy dreams and gave me your letter. A dim light past over my head enabled me to read it lying in my hammock and when I read it, it hit me