What is "the long and the short"

Short \Short\, n.

1. A summary account.

   The short and the long is, our play is preferred.
   --Shak.

2. pl. The part of milled grain sifted out which is next finer than the bran.

   The first remove above bran is shorts.
   --Halliwell.

3. pl. Short, inferior hemp.

4. pl. Breeches; shortclothes. [Slang]
   --Dickens.

5. (Phonetics) A short sound, syllable, or vowel.

   If we compare the nearest conventional shorts and longs in English, as in ``bit'' and ``beat,'' ``not'' and ``naught,'' we find that the short vowels are generally wide, the long narrow, besides being generally diphthongic as well. Hence, originally short vowels can be lengthened and yet kept quite distinct from the original longs.
   --H. Sweet.

   In short, in few words; in brief; briefly.

   The long and the short, the whole; a brief summing up.

   The shorts (Stock Exchange), those who are unsupplied with stocks which they contracted to deliver.