I've been house-keeping my computer files and came across a copy of a post I made a llong time back on this thread - which seems to have disappeared (unless there was another thread of Tom Swifties?)
I quite liked it at the time, so thought I'd disinter it and re-present it for you.
A group of friends were sorting out a box of letters which had become scrambled. Tom was in charge.
“If we tackle the job alphabetically we’ll soon find the first three letters,” Tom see-sawed ably.
“The fourth letter is repeated,” he declared deedily.
“Finding the fifth shouldn’t be difficult,” Tom said easily.
“Goodness! The sixth letter is big enough to crawl into!” said Tom ineffably.
“Bother, I’ve – er - dropped the eighth one,” ‘e said ‘altingly.
“The ninth letter looks well,” he observed seeingly.
“The tenth one looks like a bird,” jeered Tom jadedly.
“Eleventh - better after fifteenth,” he agreed abbreviatedly.
Picking up the twelfth, “We’ll probably go here,” grinned Tom devilishly.
“Thirteen – this is unlucky for some,” he mourned emphatically.
“If we can find enough of the fourteenth letter, we could use it to separate the others,“ Tom typed enthusiastically
“The fifteenth letter looks good when it brackets the twentieth,” owned Tom otiosely
“Isn’t the sixteenth one absolutely souper?” he posed peaceably.
“Would any of you wish to stand in line for the seventeenth?” he questioned quizzically.
“The eighteenth letter, is plural,” Tom rolled out artfully.
“The nineteenth is essential,” Tom squeaked sibilantly.
“Anyone for the twentieth?” he poured out the question, leafily.
The twenty-first was missing: “This is no use,” Tom uttered ululatingly.
Tom brandished the twenty-second above his head. “Long live the difference,” he voiced Frenchly
“The twenty-third is twice as bad as the twenty-first,” Tom wailed world-wearily. or [white] was it Word-windedly[/white]?
“This marks the place of the twenty-fourth letter,” he exclaimed markedly.
“We’ll keep quiet about the last two,” Tom mouthed, wisely and keeping his tongue still.
