if you want to support variable length records, which haven't been the objective here, this is my code:

My code:
;-----
display_variable_length_line_R2:
mov a,r2 ;0-255 subroutine input
mov dptr,#index ;high address table
movc a,@a+dptr ;get high addr
xchg a,r2 ;reload msg#, store high
inc dph ;bump to low address table
movc a,@a+dptr ;get low addr
mov dpl,a ;put low addr
mov dph,r2 ;put high addr
call search_table: ;go
ret
index: ;@addr XXXXh, byte sized table
db high(msg0)
...
db high(msg255)
db low(msg0) ;@index+256
...
db low(msg255)
msg0: DB "variable length messages",eot
...
msg255: DB "the end",eot
;-----
note the advantage of spliting your dw table into a high and low db set of tables: the access to the table data is quicker and more concise.

duh