followed a sameness that did not challenge young people's memory. They knew pretty well the words of prayers though they did not doubt for a minute the giver's sincerity and consecration.


FROM DANGERS SEEN AND UNSEEN

     It was shortly after deaths in the family that left only the father and Bertha that great changes came to them and to the road passing the church. The road lost it's serenity and it was now Highway number 16, much traveled and hazardous.
     Older people were slow to acquire safe driving habits, though they were sometimes unaware of it.
     Charley drove a Model T Ford and was never involved in an accident. He and Bertha made a trip to Havensville on a Saturday for groceries and they drove to church every Sunday morning. Infrequently they drove to Holton.
     One Sunday morning Uncle Charley drove past the church and as his habit drove to the corner crossing about a hundred and seventy-five yards to make a left hand turn around and drive back to park the car to be ready to drive home. Just as he began turning the Model T at the cross road a large car came down the hill from the east at a right good speed. It slowed slightly as it passed the church, then picked up a started full speed toward the corner crossing where Charley had just begun manipulating the left hand turn. The lone driver, a young man, by a hair's breadth swept past the Ford. It's pretty certain that his breath left him because it was a very narrow escape. It was his presence of mind and the guage of his speed that allowed Charley and Bertha to park sedately and climb down to go into the church without a single thought of the danger they had encountered.
     To those who so often had heard Uncle Charley's "Thank you Lord, for saving us from dangers seen and unseen," and who had stood at the church entrance and had breathlessly watched the incident, it seemed like an acceptance of his prayer, or was it the young man's alertness and sense of his responsibility to fellow travelers that helped him avoid an accident? Who can say?
     We do know that it was an "unseen danger," and that there was no tragic accident.
     As Charley Kroth's life slipped away from us, it was satisfying to hear old Dr. Manis' cause of his death at 86 years as a natural one. He had had a full life, he lived it temperately and "in the fear and admonition of the Lord." No disease or accident had shortened the years.
     The family life at Charley and Maggie Kroths was a peaceful one. The husband and father was the head of the household. Pa's words and desires were law to the wife and the seven children. The children were just as normal as any other family of seven. They romped and played, they laughed and teased and argued, they loved and hated and grew normally as any other family grows.

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