Puppy Summary

Marie tries to impress upon her children how beautiful the sun on a cornfield is, but they are too busy with their own thoughts to pay any attention. She thinks about her family when she was growing up, her father was dour and her mother ashamed. Marie encourages laughter in her own house, even when the children are laughing about something cruel they have done. Now, they are going to get a puppy to add to the menagerie of animals Marie has bought for them on the credit card. Marie's mother claims that she is spoiling the children but Marie believes they are only well-loved. She also believes that her children will actually take care of the puppy, though they haven't taken care of the other animals that she has gotten them.

Callie watches her son, Bo, play in the back yard. She...