“The Volga embankment was swarming with hookers - some were smoking, others were playing toss, others were lounging on the cobblestones, dozing. There was a lunch break. At this time, the bridges of the unloading steamships were usually empty, and the heat was so intense that it seemed that the sun was about to suck out all the water of the great river, and the three-story steamers would remain aground, like clumsy extinct monsters...” The collection of the little-known Russian writer Boris Alekseevich Verkhoustinsky included stories and stories from different years:• Ataman (story, 1912).• Scarlet Ribbon (story, 1909).• At school (story, 1912).• In the woods (story, 1912).• Zhenechka (born 1912).