There was a camp song I used to sing about a bear. It’s one of those songs where you repeat lines back and forth. The song is about a bear that gets up a tree somehow. I remember one line “Oh way up there.” It’s similar to the worm song:
There was a worm (repeat)
Inside my straw (repeat)
The smallest worm (repeat)
I ever saw (repeat)
(Repeat everything)
He said to me (repeat)
Don’t take a sip(repeat)
For if you do, I’ll surely slip(repeat)
(Repeat everything)
I took a sip (repeat)
And he went down(repeat)
Down through my pipes (repeat)
He’ll surely drown (repeat)
(repeat everything)
He was my friend (repeat)
My only friend(repeat)
And now he’s gone (repeat)
This is the end (repeat)
The end the end, the end (repeat ad nauseum)
OH man I remember this…
*Oh in the woods
there was a bear
the biggest bear
that I ever did see
I looked at him
He looked at me
I sized up him
He sized up me*
and…oh crap I can’t remember more of it now. Maybe it’ll come back to me. If on the other hand you wanna talk about “Down by the bay where the watermelons grow,” I’m all for it!
Here’s what I remember; I can’t remember that ending, though. It seems we sang a different first verse than saramamlana did.
The other day
I met a bear
up in those woods
oh way up there
he looked at me
I looked at him
he sized me up
I sized up him
He said to me
why don’t you run
for I can see
you have no gun
and so I ran
away from there
and right behind
me was that bear*
I think it ends with the narrator somehow outsmarting the bear, but I don’t remember the words.
JerH, that sounds right to me. I wasn’t too far off! ;j
and the green grass grew all around and around and the green grass grew all around…
The bear song ends with something like:
Ahead of me
(repeat)
There was a tree
(repeat)
The tallest tree
(repeat)
That I ever did see
(repeat entire verse)
The other verses follow the same format:
The lowest branch
Was ten feet up
I had to jump
And trust my luck
And so I jumped
Into the air
But I missed that branch
O way up there
But don’t you fret
And don’t you frown
Cos’ I caught that branch
On the way back down
and here was me thinking you were looking for the lyrics to “I will survive” 
The version I learned was JerH’s, followed by KRC’s - mostly,
but it began:
The other day
I met a bear
In tennis shoes
A dandy pair
In the appropriate verse, the bear said:
I see you ain’t
Got any gun
and it ended
The moral of
This story is
Don’t talk to bears
In tennis shoes
This is the end
There ain’t no more
Until I meet
That bear once more
The moral of
this story is
when you meet a bear
you need a tree
Putting it all together, what I remember is
*The other day
I met a bear
A great big bear
Oh way out there
He looked at me
I looked him
He sized up me
I sized up him
He says to me
Why don’t you run?
I see you ain’t
Got any gun
And so I ran
Away from there
But right behind
Me was that bear
In front of me
There was a tree
A great big tree
Oh glory be!
The lowest branch
Was ten feet up
I’d have to jump
And trust my luck
And so I lept
Into the air
But I missed that branch
Oh way up there
But don’t you fret
And don’t you frown
For I caught that branch
On the way back down
The moral of
The story be
Don’t meet a bear
Without a (tall) tree!
That’s all there is
There ain’t no more
Unless I meet
That bear once more!*
The format was repeat-after-me for each line, and then you re-sang each verse together more quickly.
There are a bunch of those to the same tune, aren’t there.
*The prettiest girl I ever saw
Was suppin’ cider through a straw
I asked her if she’d be my wife
And we’d sup cider all our life
Now thirty nine kids all call me pa
And sup their cider through a straw
The moral of the story here
Don’t sup your cider, drink your beer*
We’d always yell “more beer!” at the end. Now I’m wondering how many other sets of words there are to this tune.
I thought there was another verse to the worm song. Plus I learned slightly different lyrics. But I know the bear song too!
The littlest worm
I ever saw
Got stuck inside
My soda straw
He said to me
Don’t take a sip
For if you do
I’ll surely slip
I took a sip
And he went down
All through my pipes
He must have drowned
He was my pal
He was my friend
And now he’s gone
And that’s the end
The moral of (Repeat)
This little tale (Repeat)
Is If you see a worm (Repeat)
Just don’t inhale (Repeat)
(Repeat everything shouting Just Don’t Inhale!)
I just found my booklet of camp songs from when I was a volunteer counselor 10 years ago. Chronos has it almost exactly but my sheet music has one more verse (and no moral):
The end the end.
The end the end.
The end the end.
The end the end.
The end the end the end the end.
This time it really is the end.