lot was ordered from Springfield, a feeling of indignation prevailed. "It will take a long time to pack those guns properly," said one of the sage men of Springfield, —and it did; to the great annoyance of the impatient authorities they were never packed till the "boys in blue" wanted them.
      This little city of less than fifty thousand inhabitants has become a publishing centre of no mean importance. Webster's great Dictionary was for some years published by a Hartford firm. George and Charles Merriam of Springfield finally bought the interest, and by good business management have made the work what it is. The best available talent has been employed in the various revisions of the Dictionary. The work has to be frequently changed in details, as new words gain foothold in the language, pronunciations change, and various alterations and additions are required to keep the Dictionary an authority. It is the most popular dictionary in the English-speaking world, and its sale is enormous.
      Dr. J. G. Holland had his residence in Springfield for many years. Here his literary work was begun, and here much of his life's work was done. "The Bay Path" was his first novel, and its first appearance was in the columns of the Springfield Republican. With the exception of his poems, all of Dr. Holland's Springfield productions first appeared in the columns of that paper. For sixteen years one of the owners of the Republican, his literary genius so enriched its columns with prose and verse as to raise the literary excellence of the paper to an equality with that of the best magazines of the country. His "Bay Path" is a historical novel based largely on facts, —Bay Street being the old bay path on which the opening scene took place.