Jag tror att detta är "Giant's Tooth" av Bruce Coville. Den samlas in i Odder än någonsin . 
Jag läste den i en gammal kopia av Realms of Fantasy och jag hittade en lista med historier från den perioden här . Sammanfattning, som det är:
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 . . .
Jag minns historien lite. Jag minns honom att spara flera personer och de sträcker sig så småningom ett rep över munnen för att spara mer. Jag kommer ihåg dem att hugga ut håligheter (mycket för jättens oro) för att göra hem. I slutändan faller han ut ur jätten och börjar sedan göra planer på hur man kommer tillbaka i munnen.
Hittade det här förhandsgranskning vid smashwords . Absolut historien som jag minns.
Biten om den äldre man som han misslyckas med att fånga är detta:
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.