Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[RJNorton]

David, it does appear that is what happened. Walter Graves' reminiscence of what his brother told him mentions the same.

Mary was mad at Abraham and sympathetic to the boys involved, according to Graves. I am intensely sympathetic to the animals; I wonder if Mary knew what was really going on in the Lincolns' barn.

Graves wrote the following to Ida Tarbell:

"Later in the day she (Mary) sent Bob over the neighborhood, inviting the aggrieved children to a candy pulling. But something went wrong, the molasses was burned, and the invitations were withdrawn."