After reading the complete story, the main focus I want to think about is why the Yares will not move out of their desolate country. Nancy directly tells Denby that "it wouldn't do to kerry [them] down into towns"(267). The Yares are completely content in their mountains and do not see the point in living "with nothing but people about you" (267). The most I can guess from them is that the mountains are simply home, as a specific house we live in or town we come from is what we consider "home". 

I think in a way that Denby understands this because as she travels towards the Yares' home, she comments on the forest by saying that "she felt the friendliness and welcome of the hills, just as she used to be comforted and lifted nearer to God by distant church music" (255). So even though this was definitely not her classification of home, she still felt the warm presence that the forest brought. Readers can also see by these comments that it would be hard to leave this beautiful area once you have visited because of how inviting it is. 

I want to take a stab at what the mountains and nature could symbolize. Perhaps the mountains represent God, because God is known to have created this world and everything beautiful in it. Denby also talks about how she can appreciate God's work through creatures: "Long habit of grief had left her heart tender and its senses keen: these things, which were but game or specimens for the naturalist, were God's creatures to her, and came close to her" (255). We see a religious undertone in this remark because she is referring to herself as a Christian or believer of God. Maybe we are supposed to take the examples of the Yares never wanting to leave and Denby feeling so comfortable in the mountains and forests as how a Christian should feel close to his/her God.