Flowers
Flowers characterize a perceptive, delightful life. In the cottage, “its front yard, which was a garden of flowers, abundant, gay, and flourishing” represents liveliness that is sporadic in California considering that the pioneer occupants have quitted the place.
Nest
The nest denotes a relaxing, gratifying abode. The narrator explicates, “but here was a nest which had aspects to rest the tired eye and refresh that something in one's nature which, after long fasting, recognizes, when confronted by the belongings of art, howsoever cheap and modest they may be, that it has unconsciously been famishing and now has found nourishment.” Henry’s cabin is more satisfactory than the miners’ cabins where the narrator has spent his nights before. Although the cabin is unsophisticated, its spotlessness and organization enthrall the narrator.
