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LINCOLN THE UNKNOWN•23fered from a mysterious malady known as <strong>the</strong> "milk sick." Itwas fatal to cattle, sheep, and horses, and sometimes carried offentire communities of people. No one knew what caused it, andfor a hundred years it baffled <strong>the</strong> medical profession. It was notuntil <strong>the</strong> beginning of <strong>the</strong> present century that science showedthat <strong>the</strong> poisoning was due to animals eating a plant known aswhite snakeroot. The poison was transmitted to humans through<strong>the</strong> milk of cows. White snakeroot thrives in wooded pasturesand deeply shaded ravines, and to this day it continues to takeits toll of human life. Every year <strong>the</strong> Department of Agricultureof <strong>the</strong> State of Illinois posts placards in <strong>the</strong> county court-houses,warning farmers that if <strong>the</strong>y do not eradicate this plant, <strong>the</strong>ymay die.In <strong>the</strong> autumn of 1818 this dreadful scourge came to <strong>the</strong>Buckhorn Valley of Indiana, wiping out many families. Nancy<strong>Lincoln</strong> helped nurse <strong>the</strong> wife of Peter Brooner, <strong>the</strong> bearhunter,whose cabin was only half a mile away. Mrs. Broonerdied, and Nancy herself suddenly felt ill. Her head swam, andsharp pains shot through her abdomen. Vomiting severely, shewas carried home to her wretched pallet of leaves and skins.Her hands and feet were cold, but her vitals seemed to be onfire. She kept calling for water. Water. Water. More water.Tom <strong>Lincoln</strong> had a profound faith in signs and omens; so,on <strong>the</strong> second night of her illness, when a dog howled longand piteously outside <strong>the</strong> cabin, he abandoned all hope and saidshe was going to die.Finally Nancy was unable even to raise her head from <strong>the</strong>pillow, and she could not talk above a whisper. BeckoningAbraham and his sister to her, she tried to speak. They bentover to catch her words: she pleaded with <strong>the</strong>m to be good toeach o<strong>the</strong>r, to live as she had taught <strong>the</strong>m, and to worship God.These were her last words, for her throat and entire intestinaltract were already in <strong>the</strong> first stages of paralysis. She sank intoa prolonged coma, and finally died on <strong>the</strong> seventh day of herillness, October 5, 1818.Tom <strong>Lincoln</strong> put two copper pennies on her eyelids, to hold<strong>the</strong>m shut; and <strong>the</strong>n went out into <strong>the</strong> forest and felled a treeand cut it into rough, uneven boards and fastened <strong>the</strong>se toge<strong>the</strong>rwith wooden pegs; and in this crude coffin he placed <strong>the</strong> tired,worn body of <strong>the</strong> sad-faced daughter of Lucy Hanks.Two years before, he had brought her into this settlementon a sled; and now, again on a sled, he hauled her body to