Page 58 - Lulu and Bob in Verbo City

“Let me punctuate this,” said Lulu with a mouthful. “‘Our glassy
eyes close, we doze and asleep’. Are you ready with the next one?”
“No, I’m not. Uncle started off with two zeroes. I don’t get it.
‘Double naught’? ‘Goose eggs’? Maybe they are Little Orphan
Annie’s eyes: she didn’t have pupils. Otherwise they’re just nothings.”
“‘Nothings’,” mused Lulu. “Slow it down and you get ‘no things’—
or perhaps he is being very subtle and it means ‘know things’. Let’s
not spend too much time on it: we don’t have to solve it in order,
same as a crossword puzzle. Other words will help us. Next is an
insect-amphibian pair: easy! ‘Bees’ plus ‘toad’. ‘Bestowed’!”
“Good job,” said Bob. “Then it’s the inn again, followed by an ear
plus the letter ‘E’. That’s ‘eerie’, unless Uncle is thinking of the lake.”
“Not likely. The last word is three phonopictograms: a frying pan
plus a foot with the big toe indicated plus what looks like a clown. If
the first two parts are ‘pan-toe,’ then that fellow must be a mime:
‘pantomime’. That does it.”
57