Ashley Keefe, age 14, of Huntsville, Ala., for his question:

WHY DO WE CALL THE SOUTH DIXIELAND?

One story says that a Louisiana bank once printed $10 bills on which appeared the word dix, which means 10 in French. After that, many people called Louisiana ''Dix's Land.''

Another story reports there was a slave owner named Dixie, or Dixy, who was extremely kind to his workers. Dixie Land became known as a comfortable and happy place to live. Eventually the term came to refer to the entire South.

We aren't sure which story is correct  or that either one is. But the name Dixie was certainly the South's favorite nickname and it became even more popular when  Daniel Emmett, a minstrel singer, wrote a song with that title. Abraham Lincoln used ''Dixie'' as a campaign song in 1860.