“Abe” Lincoln was always ready and willing to help any one. Once he was
in a spelling match at school when the word “defied” had been given out
by the teacher. It had been misspelled several times when it came the
turn of a girl friend of Lincoln’s to spell. The pupils were arranged
on opposite sides of the room and “Abe” was watching his friend as she
struggled with the spelling. She began d-e-f, and stopped, being unable
to decide whether to proceed with an i or a y. Happening to look up, she
caught sight of Abe, who was grinning. He pointed with his index finger
to his eye. The hint was quickly understood, the word was spelled with an
i and it went through all right.