Lincoln writes to his wife Mary and confesses, "When you were here, I thought you hindered me some in attending to business; but now, having nothing but business . . . it has grown exceedingly tasteless to me . . . I hate to stay in this old room by myself." Lincoln reports that he is having trouble finding the "little plaid stockings" that Mary asked him to purchase for their son Eddy. Lincoln asks what his sons Eddy and Robert "think of the little letters father sent them?" He adds, "Dont let the blessed fellows forget father."Abraham Lincoln to Mary Lincoln, 16 April 1848, CW, 1:465-66.