“Me!” said the giantess, “Me gobbling up little boys! This I never! My sisters and Miss Yoop, yes. Those others are gobbling them up every night, but not me. I am Woozly, the Big Friendly Giantess, the BFG. What is your name?”

“My name is Charlie,” he said, hardly daring to believe the good news he’d just heard.

“But if you are so nice and friendly,” said Charlie, “Then why did you snatch me from my bed and run away with me?”

“Because you saw me,” the BFG said, “Or you would be telling everyone down in England about me. Then I’d be tarred with the same brush as my sisters and attacked by the forces of your little England, which greatly outnumber us giantesses.”

“I suppose I would,” Charlie said, “But now that I know you, I’d rather keep your secret and be friends.”

BFG went down to the kitchen and came back up with a midnight snack of red grapes and watermelon in a bowl with two spoons. Then she realised that Charlie could never lift a giant spoon. So she put him into the bowl and let him help himself, while the BFG spooned huge mouthfuls of the red fruits into her mouth.

Suddenly loud footsteps came from outside her room, and a loud voice shouted, “Woozly, are you there? Who are you talking to, Woozly?”

“Look out!” cried BFG, “It’s Ann!”

Before she had finished talking, the door opened and a taller woman came striding into the room. Charlie was still in the fruit bowl. A slice of watermelon and a grape embedded in one of its former pip holes was lying next to him. Charlie ducked into another cavity in the piece of watermelon. The BFG’s big sister came over and towered over BFG.

“Who were you talking to in here just now, in the middle of the night?” she said.

“Myself,” answered BFG.

“Pifflefizz,” said Ann, “I am thinking that you were talking to a little boy.”

“No, no!” cried Woozly.

“Yes, yes,” said Ann, “I am guessing that you snatched away a little boy and brought him back to your room as a pet. So now I shall find it and gulp it down as a middle of the night snack.”

Woozly was very nervous.

“There’s nobody in here,” she said, “Why don’t you leave me alone?”

Charlie peered out of the watermelon in the fruit bowl, watching Ann search around the room. Ann had short to medium length dark hair, a very pretty face, and a mouth that opened as wide as a doorway when she spoke. Charlie estimated that he would have taken up only half of the space on her tongue. It was not in the least difficult to believe that this gorgeous woman ate little boys every night. 

The hole in the middle of the watermelon was a wet hiding place, but that didn’t matter if it was going to save him from being eaten.

Suddenly Ann came and grabbed that very piece of watermelon.