A large package of letters was at the hotel in Cairo for our friends, and they sat till far into the night perusing and discussing these welcome missives. Everybody at home was well, and there were lots of congratulations for Frank and Fred over the intelligent use they had made of their time, and their interesting accounts of what they had seen in their travels. The presents for Mary and Miss Effie were greatly admired by those young ladies as well as by their friends, and one of the letters contained a polite intimation that similar selections in future would be as cordially welcomed. There was a renewal of the suggestion that the letters and journals of the youths ought to go into a book. Mrs. Bassett said the village editor had printed all the letters in his paper, and they had been so highly praised that he was sure they ought to be preserved in a more permanent form. "Well," said Fred, "it seems as though we were to become authors whether we want to or not." "I don't see any harm in it," responded his cousin. "Authors may do some good in the world if they make good books, can't they?" "Of course they can," was the reply; "and if we become authors we'll try to make books that nobody can object to." "I'm afraid you are counting on an impossibility," said Doctor Bronson, who had overheard the conversation. "What will please one will not please another, and you can never do your work so that somebody will not find fault with it. And there are some critics who prefer to say spiteful things, and will search a book from beginning to end to find something they can object to. If you ever write a book you must expect abuse. Do your work well, satisfy your own conscience, give your book to the public, and leave the result to take care of itself." When the perusal of the letters was over the youths went to bed and slept soundly, despite many dreams of friends at home, mingled with pyramids, temples, tombs, mummies, Arabs, deserts, valleys, and other things and places that had come under their observation since their arrival in Cairo. They were up in good time the next morning arranging for speedy departure from the City of the Caliphs, as the Doctor had informed them it was necessary to take the afternoon train for Alexandria. "Here is our plan," said the Doctor, as they sat down to breakfast. "We will take the train at noon, and be in Alexandria four hours later; the distance is a hundred and twenty miles, and the train is a fast one. We will have a day in Alexandria, and then take the steamer for Jaffa. From Jaffa we will go to Jerusalem, and from that city make the tour of the Holy Land, arranging our route according to circumstances."