this little girl named sophia hanks, there are hanks everywhere. what happens is this, somewhere in the area, a cow owned by somebody, maybe owned by the lincolns or a neighbor because people trade stuff all the time, a cow eats a plant called white snake root. grew wild inoot group indiana and cows could be attracted to it because it stuck out, especially in the fall. the cows eat the snake root and it contains a substance called trimethyl a deadly poison. , they don't know this. they don't understand the biology and how it works but they know there is something in the area called the milk sickness. when the trimethyl gets into the cows' milk, it is odorless, tasteless, but you ingest it, usually die, and not only that, but it can get into the dairy products. if you slaughter an animal that has trimethyl, you will die. it will kill you. it is not the lincolns, it is neighbors, a german couple. the mother gets sick, and then the sparrows both get sick with the milk sickness. they do not know what causes this stuff, they do not know how to fix it, b