When he returned from that trip, he was burning with a new idea. “If we string a rope directly across the center of his mouth, we might have better luck snagging things as they go by,” he said.

“The giant would rip it out,” replied Meagan.

“Well, what if we didn’t make it permanent? We could put in a couple of hooks or pegs or something, one on each side of his mouth, and run the rope between them when we wanted to use it.”

“Might work,” said Meagan dubiously. “We’d have to put the pegs in the upper teeth, though; if we try it with the lower ones he’s sure to snap it with his tongue right away.”

The next day Edgar again made his way to the far side of the giant’s mouth. As he traveled, he tucked a rope into the narrow trench that ran along the edge of the teeth.

He made the trip without incident, except for one frightening moment when he was at the front of the mouth and the giant happened to make a clucking sound. The violent forward movement of his whalelike tongue had almost flattened Edgar.

After some searching, Edgar found an upper tooth with a small hole, into which he pounded a peg. Then he waved his torch to Meagan to let her know he was going to take up the slack on the rope.

Once they had the rope tight, he swung himself onto it. Then, moving hand over hand, he inched his way toward the center of the giant’s mouth.

His ambition was rewarded when the giant tossed a cart full of melons into his mouth. Though it went directly down the center, Edgar was able to retrieve not only a pair of the melons but one of the wagon wheels, which he thought would look nice in his new home.

When he returned to the other side, Meagan grudgingly admitted that the rope had been a good idea. Just how good an idea became clear as the weeks rolled on and they were able to retrieve more and more items.

The most unexpected of these items was a young man named Charles, whom Edgar snatched from certain doom by hanging upside down from the rope and reaching out to him.

When he escorted Charles home with him, Meagan muttered about things getting too crowded in the giant’s mouth. But when Edgar said that Charles could live with him until they were able to excavate another tooth, she settled down.

Charles turned out to be clever with his hands, and it was not long before they were hard at work making a home for him in the tooth between the two they had already hollowed out.

Many hands making lighter work, the home took less time to complete than Edgar’s had, and soon they were turning their energies to new and better ways to salvage things.