The Other Day I Met a Bear is an American campfire song, especially popular with scouts. The song’s origins date back to 1919 when Carey Elmore Morgan Jr and Lee David composed it.
The song is an echo song, meaning that the main singer sings each verse that is later repeated by the rest of the group one by one. At the end of the verse, the leader will sing the whole verse alone, uninterrupted.
“The Other Day I Met a Bear” Lyrics
The other day
I met a bear
A great big bear
A way out there.
He looked at me
I looked at him
He sized up me
I sized up him.
He said to me
Why don’t you run
I see you don’t
Have any gun.
And so I ran
Away from there
And right behind
Me was that bear.
Ahead of me
I saw a tree
A great, big tree
Oh, golly gee!
The lowest branch
Was ten feet up
I’d had to jump
And trust my luck!
And so I jumped
Into the air
And missed that branch
A way up there.
Now don’t you fret
And don’t you frown
I caught that branch
On the way back down.
That’s all there is
There is no more
Until I meet
That bear once more.
The end, the end,
The end, the end,
The end, the end,
The end, the end.
Alternate lyrics
Sometimes the last stanza is replaced with this
And so I met
That bear once more,
Now he’s a rug
On my bedroom floor.