“Where to?" said the bear.The boy wobbled back to the rear seat, concentrating as the hull rolled and bounced beneath him. He half sat and half fell onto the hard wooden bench, bashing his wrist painfully against the edge as he landed."Ow!" he said. "Just over to the other side, please." He waved his unbashed hand vaguely out across the water without looking up."Right you are," said the bear.”

“The boy shivered. The bear sniffed the air."What do you smell now?" said the boy."Danger!" said the bear.The boy looked alarmed. The bear sniffed again."Or maybe marmalade," said the bear.The boy gave him a dubious stare."Possibly both," said the bear.”

“The strange thing arched its serpentine body to bring its head closer to the bear, all of its many eyes staring straight at him with alien curiosity. The thing looked at the bear. The bear looked at the thing."Oh well," said the bear. "Made a plan. Better stick to it, I suppose." And with that, mallet in paw, he leaped form the boat.”

“And they disappear over that flat blue horizon and onto another.”

“[Kirk] paced back toward his command chair, all eyes on him. "He must have a weakness.""Certainly," Chekov said. "Is he not basically humanoid? He could be poisoned, phasered, stabbed-"Kirk sneered. "Without killing him, Ensign."With a shrug, Chekov turned quietly back to his console, pulling his hands from his lap and placing them on the controls.”

“He half rose from his seat and reached across another student’s desk to drop the mangled paper clip in front of Tommy.“Look, dude,” he said, his voice low and earnest. “You want to ask me out, you man up and do it proper.”

“Alf pondered his next move. On the one hand, the savages seemed to be responding reasonably well to “How.” On the other hand they really weren’t making much progress.At least they’re not eating us, he thought.Ten seconds went by, then twenty, as Alf looked at the older savage, and the older savage looked at Alf. Finally, out of sheer nervousness, and unable to think of what else to do, Alf raised his right hand again. But this time, just as Alf began to speak, the savage rotated his spear from the vertical to the horizontal, pointing it toward Alf’s chest. Alf stopped in mid “How,” staring at the sharp pink spear tip, inches from his heart.And the savage spoke.Poking his spear tip against Alf’s chest, he said: “Can we move this conversation along, old chap? I’m getting frightfully tired of “How.”