“What was that for?” asked Carlo.

“Because I like you,” said Jumbeelia.

“Then why must you eat me?” asked Carlo.

“Because you taste so nice,” said Jumbeelia.

It was amazing. Her moist mouth could be responsible for both affection and consumption. She put Carlo in her mouth and swished him around and then sent him down her throat. To her the incongruity of her actions was nothing unusual at all.

Just before sunset, Poppet climbed back up the beanstalk, and reached the garden by nightfall. There was light on in the kitchen in the distance, and he felt sure that it was the place he had to reach if he were ever to save Carlo and Stephen. He began walking through the garden, until he heard another voice say “hello” above him.

It did not sound like Jumbeelia or Ann. He looked up to see that it was Megarre, the girls’ mother. She picked him up in the moonlight.

“I thought you’d have been long gone down the beanstalk by now,” she said, “What’s your name, little boy?”

“Me Poppet. I come save friends.”

“But you can’t save them,” she said, “My daughters have already eaten them, and one of those girls will surely eat you two. I wonder, which one should I give you to?”

“I don’t know. Both want eat me,” said Poppet.

“Well why don’t I tell you a little secret story? That might help you to decide. You see, eight years ago, two small children came to explore the valley from a house with a special dolls house in it. They had both come from a place called Looking-Glass Land, after the two of them had run away from an orphanage and gone to a place called Wonderland. While in Wonderland, the girl had eaten some cake, and the boy had drunk some liquid. The boy had then been able to shrink to tiny size, which made him like an ant compared to me. The girl had been able to grow to my size.”

(In Alice’s time, she and Robert had assumed that the ‘EAT ME’ cake had caused shrinking and regrowth, while the ‘DRINK ME’ water of Wonderland had caused enlargement and reduction to normal size. In fact, the two items had the same properties. Either one enabled girls to become giants and boys to become tiny).

“Boy get smaller?” asked Poppet.

“Yes, he could. Anyway, I found them and decided to eat the boy and raise the girl as an adopted big sister for Jumbeelia. Ann was that girl, and she’s made me so proud. She’s taken to eating little boys from her own land as surely as if she’d been a natural born girl of Brobdingnag. Ann was always a little conscious, because she was adopted. I suppose I have overcompensated for this, by spoiling Ann and not Jumbeelia. It was too late, that I saw how resentful this made Jumbeelia. The two of them have fought so often. So which one of them should eat you, little boy? A girl from your land or a girl from mine?”

Poppet didn’t really know why, but he chose Ann.

Late that evening, when Jumbeelia and her father had gone to sleep, Megarre knocked softly on Ann’s door and took Poppet into the room.

“Look what I found in the garden,” she said, “Just have him for supper in here, and let Jumbeelia think he got away today.”

“Thank you, Mother,” said Ann, smiling gratefully, “I’m so thankful that you chose to give him to me.”

“I didn’t,” said Megarre, “HE did. Enjoy your supper. Goodnight, Poppet.”

“So why did you choose me?” asked Ann, after her mother had gone.

“You and me from down there,” said Poppet, “Me the same as you.”

“Not really,” teased Ann, “You will be eaten. I get to do the gobbling, and here I go.”

She put Poppet into her mouth and swallowed him.

Megarre had other things on her mind, and needed more sleep that night, for only a few days later, her third daughter Woozly was born.