realized that I was coming over here to stay. Perhaps it was just as
well. Human nature is such that we subconsciously refuse to accept an
idea, even when we know it to be a true one, because it is totally
new--beyond our experience. Pursuant to which, I could not believe that
my fondest hopes were to be realized, and that not only I, but the whole
of America, would really get into the big game. Oh, it is big all right,
and it grows on you the more you get into it.

Now, I realize that it is asking too much of you or of any woman to view
with perfect complacency having a husband suddenly injected into war.
But just consider--suppose I was a prosperous dentist or produce
merchant on shore, instead of in the Navy. By now you and I would be
undergoing all the agonies of indecision as to whether I should enlist
or no; it would darken our lives for weeks or months, and in the end I
should go anyhow, letting my means of livelihood and yours go hang, and
be away just as long and stand as good a chance of being blown up as I
do now. So I am very thankful that things have worked out as they have
for us.

[Sidenote: Little one is permitted to tell.]

There is very little to tell that I am allowed to tell you. The
technique of submarine-chasing and dodging would be dry reading to a
landsman. It is a very curious duty in that it would be positively
monotonous, were it not for the possibility of being hurled into
eternity the next minute. I am in very good health and wholly free from
nervous tension.

P.S. When despondent, pull some Nathan Hale "stuff," and regret that you
have but one husband to give to your country.