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Pictured Puzzles and Word Play / A Companion to the Twentieth Century Standard Puzzle Book cover

Pictured Puzzles and Word Play / A Companion to the Twentieth Century Standard Puzzle Book

Chapter 384: 252. MISSING WORDS
By A. Cyril Pearson
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About This Book

A lively compendium of illustrated puzzles and verbal amusements, organized into pictured puzzles, word-play (including anagrams, charades, enigmas, and riddles), and a miscellany of odds and ends, each followed by complete solutions. It pairs visual problems—magic squares, tessellated and domino designs, and geometric dissections—with linguistic challenges that test anagramming, cryptic clues, and witty charades, and includes numerical recreations linking chess and arithmetic. Diagrams and step-by-step answers support independent solving and practical learning.

And as trim bees rise or go,
 A long aim I’d say, a libel O!

Fruit and flowers are hidden here in anagrams, each in its order separately.

Solution

230. ANSWERS BY ANAGRAM

NOW ONE OLD FORT.

What place is this?

RABID OWL.

Change this bird into a beast.

Solution

231. CHARADE
By W. M. Praed

Alas, for that forgotten day
 When chivalry was nourish’d,
 When none but friars learn’d to pray,
 And beef and beauty flourish’d;
 And fraud in kings was held accursed,
 And falsehood sin was reckon’d,
 And mighty chargers bore my first,
 And fat monks wore my second!
Ah, then I carried sword and shield
 And casque with flaunting feather,
 And earn’d my spurs in battle-field,
 In winter and rough weather;
 And polish’d many a sonnet up
 To ladies’ eyes and tresses;
 And learn’d to drain my father’s cup,
 And loose my falcon’s jesses!
But dim is now my grandeur’s gleam,
 The mongrel mob grows prouder;
 And everything is done by steam,
 And men are kill’d by powder;
 And now I feel my swift decay,
 And give unheeded orders;
 And rot in paltry state away
 With sheriffs and recorders.

Solution

232

My first you oft savagely pierce through and through;
 My next harbours nonsense, and wisdom, and dust;
 But, oh! what disaster might chance to accrue,
 Should my whole, from my second, step into my first!

Solution

233. DECAPITATION

My whole describes the action of a gale,
 Decapitation makes an organ play.
 Behead again, it sounds o’er hill and vale;
 Again, it tells of what we do not pay.
 Take nothing off, it is an eagle’s sail.
 Again behead, and half a string denote;
 Again, and lo! a horse’s head and tail;
 And last of all on music’s notes I float.

Solution

234. A BURIED PROVERB

Society—how her enthusiasts worship at her Juggernaut car. Cases exist here, proving how illogical are these eagle-sighted, place-hunting beings, scoffing at hereditary position, yet striving to get her smile.

A well-known proverb is buried in this sentence. Can you dig it out?

Solution

235. ANSWER BY ANAGRAM

What should we put on a bird’s tail to catch it without a steel trap?

Solution

236. AN ENIGMA
By Praed

Across my first, with flash and roar,
 The stately vessel glides alone.
 And mournful on the crowded shore
 There stands an aged crone,
 Watching my second’s parting smile,
 As he bids farewell to his native isle.

My whole comes back to other eyes,
 With beauteous change of fruit and flowers,
 But dim to her are those bright skies,
 And sad those joyous hours;
 For, alas! my first is dark and deep,
 And my second cannot hear her weep.

Solution

237. THE ARAB AND HIS ASS
The Sequel

When morning dawned, and the tide was out,
 The pair crossed over ’neath Allah’s ..........,
 And the Arab was happy beyond a doubt,
 For he had the best donkey in all that §.
You are wrong! They were drowned in crossing over,
 Though the donkey was bravest of all his ....;
 He luxuriates now in perpetual clover,
 And his master has gone to the prophet’s em⏞.

Solution

238. MISSING WORDS

A ..... ..... on ....’. strands
 Caught Pat’s heart in her meshes;
 He left the ..... in Cupid’s hands,
 And watched her ..... her tresses;
 Tresses of ..... coloured gold,
 Veiling, like any frock,
 A tail which, as it did unfold,
 Gave to poor Pat a shock.

Solution

239. ANSWER BY ANAGRAM

Where can you be “in a stone-pine garden”?

Solution

240. MISSING WORDS

No ..... sympathy was ever shown,
 Than when ..... news from Kingston ..... was known.

The three missing words are spelt with the same five letters.

Solution

241. ANSWER BY ANAGRAM

What bodily discomfort follows an ague-fit?

Solution

242. A TANGLED SQUARE

Can you readjust the 16 letters in this square so that they form a perfect word square?

I E I T
I S A S
A S I S
E D E D

Image

Solution

243. RIVERS IN ANAGRAM

What European rivers are concealed in these eight anagrams:—Set in red robe Henri Le Roi O sell me red pine nerves biter.

Solution

244. A PIED PALINDROME

Rearrange these letters so that they form a palindrome, or sentence that reads alike from either end:—

F PPPP RRRR SSSS TT
EEEEII OOOO

Solution

245

What political parrot cry can be evolved by anagram from this sentence, which condemns it?

O fool! O musty cry! O lurid woe!

Solution

246. ANSWER BY ANAGRAM

What statesman’s name was a “terrible poser?”

Solution

247. A PROVERB IN ANAGRAM

Can you recast the letters of this sentence into a well-known English proverb?

Yea, a glad sun rose red.

Solution

248. ANSWER BY ANAGRAM

Has there been a poet of unusual solemnity?

Solution

249. ANAGRAM ENIGMA

No, no, I hardly ever touch
 The thing which many love so much.
 It has a place within these lines,
 But is taboo where Delia dines.

Solution

250. HE SQUARED THE CIRCLE

“Yes,” said young Biceps of St Boniface, who had failed to satisfy the examiners, “they have ploughed me in Euclid, and yet if I had half a chance I could teach them how to square a circle!”

“Bravo, Biceps!” cried his chum, who was helping him to drown dull care in fruity port, “don’t keep the great secret to yourself!” And so he told him—what?

Solution

251. TO EXTRACT A CIRCLE FROM A GIVEN SQUARE

When his friend had recovered from the shock of the atrocity described in our last, he retaliated by assuring Biceps that he could extract a circle from a given square. What was his method?

Solution

252. MISSING WORDS

He said, “You ......” when one lied,
 He said, “Don’t ......” when one sped,
 His glass held ...... at his side;
 He can ...... what he denied.
 As all your wits “entranced” you bend
 To find the key omit the end.

Solution

253. A CHARADE

My captive second, sulking in my first,
 Might surlily bemoan his fate accurst;
 Bemoan, or as alternative you find
 My whole the word that fits his state of mind.
 For meet enclosure, you can take a score
 Of captive seconds, first deducting four.

Solution

254. A CIPHER ADVERTISEMENT

THGLBDWNWSLLLDSTFTHLT,
MNFTNRDRNRGTNNTHSPT.

Add two vowels alternately to complete the couplet.

Solution

255. ANSWER BY ANAGRAM

Can you discover by anagram what his brother was when he put “Tim in a pet?”

Solution

256. MISSING WORDS

Who knows the .... a land may know
 Famed for its ...., and long ago
 A .... of sage and seer.
 The native there, so full of tricks,
 To .... his hunger .... with sticks,
 Nor knows his ways are queer!

Solution

257. A CHARADE

If doubled you would see my first
 Let third and second be reversed.
 But if my last you would behold
 Increase my first a hundredfold.
 Combine them all, and you can trace
 The four within an empty space.

Solution

258. IN THE HAY-FIELD

In the words welcome to a thirsty toiler, “Mower, I will tap the cask!” are hidden by anagram the names of an English poet and of one of his poems. Can you discover them?

Solution

259. A CHARADE

My first is small, and seldom reverential;
 My next not large enough to heed or prize;
 My whole is altogether consequential;
 My third, though small, is counted very wise.

Solution

260. A LETTER PUZZLE

To be
aaaaaaaaaa
tCrIiOfUlSes
standing
is the mark of a mean

Solution

261. WITH IVORY LETTERS

Can you recast the letters that spell RED NUTS AND GIN so that they form one long word?

Solution

262. A HIDDEN NOVEL

Can you rearrange these letters so that they form the title of a well-known novel by Charles Dickens?

CDEHHIILOOOPRSSTTUY

Solution

263. “COME OUT, ’TIS NOW SEPTEMBER!”
—Old Song.

In swift ...... the beaters add
 Fresh ...... to the heaps of slain;
 And still, with lust of slaughter mad,
 The ...... plies his hand amain!

The missing words are spelt with the same six letters.

Solution

264. A CHARADE

My first is nothing but a name,
 My second still more small,
 My whole shows such a lack of fame
 It has no name at all.

Solution

265. A BREAKFAST TABLE PUZZLE

“If father gives us a new dog, it will wake the lazy ones!” Can you discover from these words which of his children were often late for breakfast?

Solution

266. A CIPHER

NGOTRDSREAOHR
ETNSVEENUDOEO

Can you decipher the common proverb here concealed?

Solution

267. AN UNKNOWN NAME

Well known by story, not by name,
 I died a death unknown before,
 Nor ever to corruption came;
 My shroud the waves cast on the shore.

Solution

268. UNDA WATER

How might an oyster, if it could speak, and knew that unda is Latin for wave or water, complain in similar phonetic iteration when disturbed by thunder under unda?

Solution

269. MISSING WORDS

When ....., our puppy, sets out for a run,
 Over ..... he ....., all frolic and fun;
 For no whistle ..... he in his desperate hurry,
 The slow sheep to ....., and the old cow to worry.

The five missing words are spelt with the same five letters.

Solution

270. FIND THE GIRLS

Bad hero set by thy door hurt me ma. Army may get ruder daily.

Ten girls’ names are here in anagrams.

Solution

271. A GOOD DESCRIPTION

Lord Beaconsfield’s statue,
True as old ———

Can you can complete this anagram?

Solution

272. SHAKESPEARE ANAGRAMS

These three lines are perfect anagrams of three consecutive lines in “Romeo and Juliet,” Act II., Scene V.:—

The tub sold has old rough shelves.
And e’en this fisherman caught best white smelts.
A living lord’s black dress, worn high, I vow!

Can you discover the original lines?

Solution

273. MISSING WORDS

That mystical gnome never flinches from toil
 Who ...... the ...... in Orient soil;
 Yet ...... mortals will ever abound
 To ...... all the soil till the treasure is found.

Solution

274. A PUZZLE ACROSTIC

My feathered first has wings and sings,
 Unfledged my second swings its wings;
 My third on blackest pinions flies,
 My fourth can float beneath the skies.
 The letters to my first that fall
 Are the initials of them all.
◯ ◯ ◯ ◯
◯ ● ● ●
◯ ● ● ●
◯ ● ● ●

Image

Can you substitute words which fulfil the conditions?

Solution

275. DROP LETTER PUZZLE

My first was of the ...... breed,
 Their ..... captain, hot and riled,
 To .... his men found vain indeed,
 They only ... and smoked, and smiled!

One letter is dropped each time.

Solution

276. DOUBLETS

Can you convert HARE into SOUP, using not more than six links, changing only one letter with each link, and preserving the order of the letters from link to link?

Solution

277. A NEW ENIGMA

Putting two small beasts that you take
 To the beginning of an end,
 A pointed weapon you will make
 To wound a foe or praise a friend.

Solution

278. ANSWER BY ANAGRAM

If a “newspaper” could speak, what might it say of the general work of its staff?

Solution

279. BY RULE OF THUMB

How can you turn the positive quantity 1011 into a negative?

Solution

280. ANSWER BY ANAGRAM

What one word can you form from the sentence—

“O, I’m man’s trial!”

Solution

281. A REBUS

EEE and xxx URXXI XXX and eee.

Solution

282. A RIDDLE

Why may not the owner of a pine forest fell his timber?

Solution

283. MISSING WORDS

He ....... to be ....... as a wonderful shot
 But he potted the dog, and ....... was his lot!

The missing words are spelt with the same seven letters.

Solution

284. DOUBLETS

Can you change ARMY into NAVY with seven links, changing one letter every time, and preserving their sequence?

Solution

285. BY ANAGRAM

‘I excel not by a pun’—
 Turn these six words into one.

Solution

286. CAN SUCH THINGS BE?

When is an onion like music?

Solution

287. ANSWER BY ANAGRAM

What is the bitter cry of “Christianity?”

Solution

288. NO TURNCOAT

Show by anagram that a Conservative is constant to his cause.

Solution

289. WHY NOT?

Christmas Day and New Year’s Day fall as a rule upon the same day of the week. Can any ingenious reader discover why they will not fall upon the same day of the week in the year 1910.

Solution

290

“War is a game which, were their subjects wise,
 Kings would not play at,” wrote the poet’s pen;
 But in war’s issue will be staked the prize,
 While kings and subjects are but erring men;
 So Britain—native empress of the seas—
 On ocean cradled, by her storm-king nursed—
 Friend of the fallen, guardian of the free,
 Rests on her well-tried last and trusty first.
 Her first alone can well maintain her right,
 Unscathed by any threat or mutinous blast;
 And though, when needed, foremost in the fight,
 Her first (strange paradox!) is always last!
 But should the tide of war approach the shore
 And threaten to engulf her island seat,
 My whole, replying with defiant roar,
 Would crash the audacious foe beneath her feet!

Solution

291. AN EASY CHARADE

My first is flogged to make it move the faster,
 And turns at once to satisfy its master.
 My next will ripen as a pleasant fruit,
 For those whose simple taste its flavours suit.
 My whole, when breezes blow and pennons fly,
 Stands up aloft and points us to the sky.

Solution

292. NOT BY CANNING

A noun there is, of plural number,
 In daily use from here to Humber.
 Now almost any noun you take
 By adding “S” you plural make;
 But if you add an “S” to this,
 Strange is the metamorphosis!
 Plural is plural now no more;
 Useless what useful was before.

Solution

293

First, a semi-circle make,
 Add to this another
 Figure of two little lines
 Meeting with each other;
 Then a perfect circle form,
 Truly, neat, compactly,
 Add another form to these,
 Like the first exactly;
 Then, to make it all complete,
 Form a kind of angle,
 With a straight line, that should meet
 In a kind of tangle;
 When you this have rightly done
 (’Tis the truth I’m telling),
 You will get an article
 Useful in a dwelling:
 Should you this decapitate,
 You may have another
 Article, which, in its place,
 Is useful as the other.

Solution

294. A CHARADE

Veiling the leas, my first may steep
 Late autumn’s listless air;
 And with my tainting second creep
 On idle spade and share.
When happy days link soul to soul,
 And sunny faces shine,
 May both combined, a subtle whole,
 Be far from me and mine!

Solution

295. A CHARADE
By Mark Lemon

Old Charlie Brown, who a big rogue was reckoned,
 Was brought up at my first for making my second;
 He was fined, and because he no money would pay
 Had to work with my whole on the King’s highway.

Solution

296

Complete, I grow within a field
 And pleasant pasture often yield;
 Behead me once, a suitor then
 Is quickly brought before your ken;
 Behead again, I am a word
 That on the cricket-ground is heard.
 Restore my heads, cut off my tail,
 To name a spice you’ll not then fail;
 Behead me now, and you will find
 The master passion left behind.
 Put on my head, my tail restore,
 Complete me as I was before,
 My second letter take away,
 An envelope I am, you’ll say;
 But now curtail me just once more,
 I am an inlet on the shore.

Solution

297