The Sandman's farm stories by William Hopkins consists of 21 stories of a little boy around the farm, including such everyday tasks as grinding corn, making cider, fetching water, growing wheat, and boiling maple syrup. Many black and white illustrations are also included, although they are scanned from an out-of-print book so they are not top-notch in terms of print quality. The Sandman series by William Hopkins was written to help his young son go to sleep. Although the series starts with the farm, later volumes told stories about a ship and its voyages at sea, while another told about building a house.