Jacob Grimes had to run off to Mexico. What a pity and a sin that a boy only sixteen years old should commit a crime for which, had he been taken by the officer, he would have been hanged.

For several months Jacob had belonged to a ranging company stationed on the frontier. He was very right in trying to help protect his country from the Indians, at a time when most of the men were in the war. Were it not for the terrible crime I am going to tell you of, he might have been very useful.

In July he received a furlough to stay at home a few weeks, and another boy named Edward Schuff came down with him. The peaches were ripe when the boys arrived, and they could very easily get as many as they wanted.

One night these wicked boys went into a neighbor's orchard to steal peaches. Had they gone in the day time and civilly asked the old man who owned the orchard for a few, I dare say he would have given them as many as they could carry away.

But no, they were too low to take fruit in this honorable manner; they were low enough to steal it in the night, which, I need not tell you, is very low indeed.

The owner, who lived alone, hearing some one in his orchard, went out to prevent his finest trees being robbed. The boys saw him coming, and before he had spoken a word, or even saw them, Jacob Grimes drew his six-shooter, and shot the poor old man dead.

Two or three days afterward, the man was found lying just where he fell. For a week the circumstances of his death were not known. When they were at length ascertained, everybody was shocked to learn that a good old man had been thus murdered, and that a young boy had committed so fearful a deed.

As soon as the old man fell, the boys thought no more of peaches, but hurried home in the greatest fear.--To say nothing of the wickedness of the act, can you imagine any thing more cowardly than to shoot an old man in the dark, and then run away?

Jacob made Edward promise secrecy, but he was old enough to know "murder will out," and he thought it safest to flee to Mexico. There he is now, a poor fugitive, with a hard lot before him. Who can say how his widowed mother felt when she learned where her only son had gone, and for what reason?

I do not like to see boys armed with bowie-knives and six-shooters. They may, sometime, use them as poor Jacob Grimes did his six-shooter, in a terribly thoughtless, wicked manner, and thus ruin their prospects and happiness for life. Indeed, every sensible, truly peaceable man, will tell you that he has no use for arms of any kind, unless he is in a country where there is danger from Indians or robbers.

I hate a coward, neither do I like a boy who is full of fight. I presume Jacob Grimes had always been accustomed to "hit back," and very often to strike the first blow. Do you know that it frequently takes much more courage to keep from fighting, than it does to give a boy, a little weaker than yourself, a good thrashing?

Bad men, when they see you quarrelling, will shout, "Pitch in, boys!" but before you mind them again, I want each one of you to find out what his New Testament says about fighting. You will look it through in vain for one word of permission to "pitch in!"