Her traveling companion, Ms. Tucker, knows that Miss McCarty did enjoy it. In time, people came to see her almost like an oracle and listened closely for pearls of wisdom at the little woman's knee. But her friends know that Miss McCarty's wisdom was really a mix of common decency and common sense. It seems pretty basic to me. If you want to feel proud of yourself, you've got to do things you can be proud of.
Feelings follow actions.
The university's president said that a New York reporter once asked him out of earshot of Miss McCarty to tell him the true story of her gift. The president told the reporter that it happened just as Miss McCarty said, that she had wanted to do something good with the money she had made. It is not any more complicated than that, Fleming said. In a world in which people are suspicious of things too good to be true, he said, Miss McCarty really was good and true.