April Mullins, age 11, of Nashville, Tenn., for her question:

WHY IS THE SOUTH CALLED DIXIE?

There are several ideas about why the southern part of the United States is sometimes called Dixie or Dixieland.

At one time, a Louisiana bank printed $10 bills which included the French word "dix," which means "ten." According to a popular story, people at first called Louisiana Dix's Land, and then later shortened it to Dixie. In time, Dixie came to mean the entire South, rather than just Louisiana.

Another story says that there was a slave owner named Dixy, or Dixie, who was extremely kind to all of his slaves. Dixie's Land became known as a happy, comfortable place to live. Gradually, the term came to refer to all of the South.