Then he told the bear story.

All who do can swap bear stories and sip hot chocolate at 3 P.M. on board the Wavertree, an 1855 ship.

Scary bear stories and ghostly wolf encounters alternate with more surprising accounts of flying squirrels and bats.

It seems that, in general, the bears leave people alone, but everyone in Alaska has a bear story.

Frightful grizzly bear stories abound from the middle 1860s.

There came a bear story then (Sherwood, the windup bear, was lost in the woods.

Another round of bear stories was being told, this time by fiercely eager young boys.

"A bear story," said Grumpy, sitting down on his haunches and waving both paws.

He says: "Drama explores big issues by bringing them down to a human story - or in my case a polar bear story."

This imagery comes from an ancient bear story in Cherokee mythology.