function MakeList(string sep=".  ")
    function MakeItem(integer env, string sep)
        integer counter = getd("counter",env)+1
        setd("counter",counter,env)
        return sprintf("%d%s%s",{counter,sep,{"first","second","third"}[counter]})
    end function
    integer counter = new_dict({{"counter",0}})
    sequence res = {}
    for i=1 to 3 do
        res = append(res,MakeItem(counter,sep))
    end for
    return res
end function

?MakeList()