Can you copyright numbering system in a public domain work?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? IOWA

If you put a numbering system in a public domain book, can that part be copyrighted? For example, let's suppose their is a sentence called in book "What is this. This is work. What kind of work?" and I put the numbering system like "1 What is this. 2 This is work. 3 What kind of work?". And this goes for every sentence in the book. Therefore, does this numbering part gets copyrighted? Meaning, no one else can publish the book with the numbering system inside, since that part is copyrighted by me.

as I said in the other thread, what would be copyrighted, if it could be at all, would be

1.

2.

3.


the rest (the original work) is not covered under your copyright. Everybody else can still print the book since it is in the public domain. They might have to leave the numbers out but I do not believe your addition would qualify for copyright protection though.