Eu acho que isso é "O Dente do Gigante" por Bruce Coville. Ele é coletado em Mais Odioso do que Nunca .
Eu li em uma cópia antiga de Realms of Fantasy e encontrei uma lista de histórias daquele período aqui . Resumo, tal como é:
Edgar Twonky didn't intend to get eaten by a giant while he was heading for Cottleson Fair. Sometimes these things just happen. What was even more startling was what he discovered once he was in the giant's mouth . . .
Eu me lembro da história um pouco. Lembro-me dele salvando várias pessoas e elas eventualmente amarram uma corda na boca para ajudar a economizar mais. Lembro-me deles cavando cavidades (para desgosto do gigante) para fazer casas. No final, ele cai do gigante e começa a planejar como voltar à boca.
Encontrou esta pré-visualização em smashwords . Definitivamente a história que eu lembrei.
O pouco sobre o homem mais velho, ele não consegue pegar é este:
While he continued to work on his new dwelling, Meagan taught him how to snatch things from the tide of food and rubble that poured down the giant's throat three times a day. When she "went fishing," as she called it, she first secured a safety rope to one of the chairs inside the tooth. Normally she pulled things in with the help of a long pole that had a hook on one end. But if something particularly good came rushing past that was too far out on the tongue for her to snag simply by leaning for it, she would fling her whole body onto the surface of the tongue, then use the rope to haul herself back.
Once they saw an old man go past, but he was all the way in the center of the mouth, and they were not able to reach him despite their best efforts. His cry of despair as he disappeared down the giant's gullet echoed in Edgar's dreams for many nights afterward.