There are many deeply interesting accounts of readjustment of family life through the taking over by the living of duties once undertaken by the dead.

The lovely idyl of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz, shows this widely spreading brother-duty.

Here the mother-in-law, so sweet and so wise that her sons' wives loved her deeply, shrewdly manages a contact between Ruth and Boaz to the lasting service of her son's inheritance of name and land.

The whole story is redolent of the finer side of ancient forms of familial duty, the man being rich and generous enough to take on his more remote relative's responsibilities, the young widow being sweet and charming enough to capture the interest of the rich man even before he knows who she is, and the mother-in-law showing statesmanship of the highest order in managing the affair, together with such fine character of her own that all respect and love her.
To-day we have left in law and custom but the shadow of these ancient demands upon brothers in the family.

That shadow is limited to the purely economic aspect of brotherly responsibilities.