Ella Minnow Pea

The letter “K” is now banned. Tassie writes to Mittie that the citizens are very excited by the challenge of coming up with a shorter pangram than Nollop’s. She says that the possibility of being able to thwart the Council’s oppression of the Nollopians’ “very humanity” has dramatically brightened the spirits of those involved in the movement.

Tassie relates another decree of the Council: that any property that has been vacated by those emigrating from Nollop will be officially annexed by the government. One councilman, Harton Mangrove, is moving onto the estate of Georgie Boonswang, who has been forced to leave. Tassie says that other Council members have contemplated similar moves. Tassie closes her letter quickly due to the fact that she must help with the pangram challenge.

Two days later, Nate writes a love letter to Tassie as he watches her working on the pangram challenge. Rory also writes to Mittie, saying that he appreciates how she is taking care of him while he is sick with the flu. He tells her that he is spending his time in bed working on the pangram challenge, which he does with the aid of a girl named Eugenia, who is seven years old and thus is not subject to the Council’s edicts. Rory has come up with a pangram of 49 letters: “A quick move by the enemy will jeopardize six fine gun boats.” Mittie responds: she marvels at the sentence and she informs him that a professor in Nollopton named Mannheim has created one under 48 letters.

The next day, Tassie tells Mittie that “F” and another “O” fell the previous night. “F” will be excised as of “twelve o’timepiece” the following evening. Still, she says, there is great support for what they are calling “Enterprise Thirty-two.”

Tassie also reveals how Council members laugh at their efforts, watching children running around to write down the sentences the adults try to create them (mostly by miming what they mean). Council members, on the other hand, “gather in reverent, worshipful circle beneath the cenotaph to sing praises to Nollop.” She explains that the recent confiscation of property is a violation of the constitution, but the Council says that they are in an “extraconstitutional crisis.” Tassie writes, however, that they are no longer afraid: they have found courage in their movement.

Nate writes to Tassie from the Office of Corrections at Town Center. He says he suspects that the Council has found out about his article on Nollop and that he will likely be kicked off the island. He begs Tassie to stay and fight for Nollop’s survival, to work on Enterprise Thirty-Two, so that he might one day return to her. Tassie then writes to Mittie, informing her of Nate’s banishment and lamenting that she could not even say goodbye to him.