Page 21 - Lulu and Bob in Verbo City

The twins smiled feebly.
“So, it’s good news, then, Uncle?” said Lulu.
“Yes, it is. All I have to do is remain calm for a few days and stay
away from arcane archives and recondite researches—no, no, don’t
worry: a bit of alliteration won’t hurt me. Once you’re gone I think
I’ll spend many happy hours just sitting here watching my
sesquipedalians acclimatize to their new environment. Thanks again
for picking them up for me. Boy, it’s warm in here: must be my
metabolism is greatly improved.”
Bunster sauntered over to the linguarium and pulled out a piece of
paper from his jacket pocket. The twins quickly recognized it as the
original sheet the impression of which they had found on the
telephone pad.
“Let’s see. Oxymorons, palindromes and my very expensive hapax
legomenon: they still look happy enough. Ah, yes, there’s
‘polytetrafluoroethylene’ slipping off the wall, knocking down poor
‘photoreconnaissance,’ who was trying to get a better view;
‘counterintelligence’ sneaking up on ‘incomprehensibility;’
‘multimillionairess’ at the feet of ‘omphaloskeptically.’ Yes, all of
them on the list are here.”
The twins sighed simultaneously but their uncle did not hear. He
had his nose pressed against the linguarium glass. “Something’s not
right. Where’s my lagniappe?”
“Your what?” gasped Lulu. “‘Lagniappe only has nine letters; it’s
no more than half a sesquipedalian.”
“Uh-oh,” groaned Bob, who had an idea of what was wrong.
“This must be like a ‘baker’s dozen.’ How many are in a ‘scribbler’s
score’?”
“Twenty-one, of course.” Bunster’s face clouded. “Old
Wordsworth must have thought he could put one over on me: I
distinctly told him which word I wanted as the extra:
‘pneumoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.’ Of course he
wouldn’t part with that, so I had to settle for
‘octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane.’ But it’s not here. I am going to call
him right now and read him the riot act!”
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