Children of the dungeon

This short story about the events that shape the soul of the protagonist, it depicts the growing up of a boy Vasya. Vasya has a difficult situation in the family: his mother has died, his father does not pay any attention to him, only his little daughter, because she looks like her mother. The son grows up, "like a wild tree in a field." The town where Vasya lives is surrounded by ponds. On one of them is an island with an old castle, where beggars and vagrants live. After meeting the poor children Valko and Marusya, the protagonist, the judge's son, sympathizes with them. Communicating with these children becomes a real school of life for Vasya. It is in "bad company" that Vasya receives his first lessons of kindness and humanism.