The Longest Way Round, is the Shortest Way Home

“These two boys have just been let out of school, and are returning home. Their father’s house is seen in the distance on the right, and between it and the school-house there is a large tract of marshy and miry ground. The elder brother shows his wisdom in going round in the old beaten path. But the younger brother, in his eagerness to get home first, takes a shorter cut across the marsh. He takes a pole with him in order to leap across the ditches he may find in his way. In leaping across one of them the pole breaks, he falls into the ditch, and is mired nearly up to his neck in mud. It is unnecessary to state which boy got home first, or who made the best appearance after they got home."—Barber, 1857

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