She went to her friend and former advisor, Jim Stover, to ask his assistance in securing employment. Much to her surprise he offered her a position in the Wilford Springs Central State Bank. It was with a great deal of figuring--close figuring, too--that she met the bills of her family with the meager salary she received as stenographer. One evening, after she had been employed in the bank about a year, as she stepped out on the street she met her friend Harold King, a young architect, whom she had met soon after coming to Wilford Springs. "Hello, Ruth." "Hello, Harold." "Which way, Ruth?" "I am going down to Smith and Son's Grocery Store to get some groceries, then I intend to catch a Sylvan Avenue car." "If you have no objections I will walk with you to the grocery." "None whatever. I always enjoy good company." "How is your father?" "Apparently there is no change in him. He has a good appetite and rests well but gets very nervous at times and his memory doesn't come back to him. If I only had the money I would take him to Dr. Lilly, who is recognized as one of the best mental and nerve specialists in the United States." "It is too bad that so many of us have to be so often hampered for money," he remarked. "I can stand it except when we need it for the services of a doctor. I don't mind having to wear the old dress longer than most girls wear theirs, but when Daddy is in the condition he is and I think there might be some help for him if I just had the money then the lack of it hurts." "Don't worry," he remarked, endeavoring to comfort her, "circumstances may soon change." "Circumstances must change. I'll make them change," she said with determination. "Ruth, I wish I could help in some way. Maybe, if someone would suggest to Stover that he raise your salary he would do so." "He might. I have worked there a year. He seems pleased with my work but has raised my salary only once and that raise was but ten dollars. Of course, I wouldn't want to ask any of my friends to make a suggestion of that kind to my employer." The subject of salary was dropped and Ruth remarked, "There was a man in the bank today who said that there is an organizer of the Ku Klux Klan in town and that he wants to organize here." "I hadn't heard that," he replied, "but I have been reading considerable about Klan activities." "You haven't read much that was good of them, have you?" she asked. "Well, yes; I have read of some charitable deeds of the Klan and also of some other good things that they have done." "The most I have read of them were accounts of where they had whipped someone or given somebody a coat of tar and feathers. Mr. Stover said that it would be a disgrace to the city to have a Klan here. He says that it's an outlaw organization." "Really, Ruth, I don't know enough about it to judge." "Here is Smith and Son's. Goodbye." When she reached home, not seeing her father, she asked for him.