Before too many more years had passed, a thriving community had risen in the giant’s mouth. The people got on well enough, though there were occasional conflicts—as there always will be when you have people locked together in a crowded space.

To the surprise of no one save Edgar, he turned out to be the one who usually solved these conflicts, and eventually he was elected mayor of Giant’s Mouth Township. They gave him a jeweled scepter, which they had managed to retrieve one afternoon when the giant swallowed a king. (They had tried to save the king, too, of course, but his grip was weak and flabby, and he had not been able to hold on when Herbert reached out to him.) Many was the night Edgar sat in his tooth and looked out the window he had carved on the tongueward side, feeling warm and cozy at the sight of the lights twinkling on the other side of the giant’s mouth.

In this way, the years rolled on.

And then, one afternoon while he was setting a rope, Edgar was suddenly yanked from the giant’s mouth.

It happened because the giant, who was in a foul mood that day, became particularly irritated by the feeling of things moving in his mouth. Edgar was stringing a rope across the roof of the giant’s mouth in order to do some salvage work when the giant reached in and began to scratch at the roof of his mouth. Though the rope was less to him than a silk thread would be to a human, it caught on his fingernail. When he pulled his hand out, one end of the rope came free—and with it, still clinging to the end, came Edgar.

As he hurtled out of the giant’s mouth, two things caused Edgar to blink. The first was the unexpected brightness of the sun, which he had not seen except at a distance for so many years. The second was the horrifying distance that separated him from the ground.

Knowing he could not keep his grip on the saliva-slick rope, Edgar made a desperate leap and landed on the giant’s collar. The giant swatted at him, as one would at an annoying insect, but Edgar quickly scrambled under the giant’s collar, where he held as still as he could, scarcely breathing.

All through the long hot day he stayed there, peering sideways at the world below, longing for it, thinking of how he had missed it.

Finally night darkened the sky, bringing with it the stars that he had not seen in so many years. Their beauty made him weep.

The giant lay down, and after a time began to snore.