“When I was a little girl living in England, my parents adopted a black and white kitten from a local farm. My mother named her Josephine, after her favorite aunt, and we all called her Jo. From her earliest days, Jo had an uncanny ability to secrete herself in all manner of hidden places. Whenever my father couldn’t locate Jo, he would organize family search parties to help him find her.  

“In the dance, my father and I set off to look for Jo. He searches the upstairs (2nd couples’ position) and I search the basement (3rd couple’s position). When we still can’t find her—and since each of us privately thinks that the other simply didn’t look in the right spot—we switch places. At last Jo is discovered—but by whom, I cannot say. My entire family celebrates by dancing the final figure.”