Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly (Proverbs 17:12).

"She came out of nowhere, I'm tellin' you."  The man spoke in a hurried, breathless way; it was like he was panting from extreme physical effort, even though it was plain to see that he had been sitting at the bar all evening.  His eyes bugged out, and his nostrils flared.  The tragic events were fresh in his mind, even though the scars across his face and hands were obviously months, if not years, old.  He trembled as he shared his story.

"I wasn't doing anything!  Honest!  The only thought in my mind was to help.  I'd been walking along in the woods, just lookin' for mushrooms, when I came across this little baby black bear with its foot stuck in a rusty ol' bear trap.  It was squallin' and squallin' and I felt just horrible for the little guy -- but I hadn't done anything or even stepped close enough to touch the little bear when there was this sudden noise behind me, and I turned around just in time to see this big ol' mama bear charging through the bushes and leaping towards me..." He paused and shuddered.  His fingers reached up and touched the scars on his face:  three deep-set lines running across his ears, his cheek, his lips, and down to his chin.  They were a dull pink, and the skin bubbled up around the old gashes before smoothing out over the rest of his face.  His hand shook as he fingered the scars.  His eyes drifted towards the back of the bar.  An uncomfortable silence settled over the huddle of men listening.

"And then what happened?" prompted one of the curious bystanders, leaning in to hear the rest of the gruesome story.

Suddenly the man straightened his back, set his face, and turned his eyes back to the eager faces gathered around.  "Well, that's a silly question, isn't it?  The damn thing mauled me.  She mauled me bad, and I couldn't do a blessed thing about it.  She knocked me down to the ground with one swipe of her paw, and then she just batted me around on the ground like a little rag doll.  And I couldn't do a blessed thing about it.  I just lay there and took a beating.  She locked her jaws on my shoulder and dug her teeth into my bones.  It was awful."  He paused and swallowed hard.  "There wasn't a blessed thing I could do about it, until she finished her business and I could crawl away for help.  I have nightmares about that mama bear every night.  I have pain in my bones and scars across my body.  I think that's about the worse kind of accident that could happen to a man.  I think..."