"Here's your lemonade," Henry said.
He handed a cup of ice-cold lemonade to a teenage girl.
"Please come again," Henry's cousin Maggie added.
"And let us know if you have any mysteries for us to solve."
"Okay." The girl took a sip of her lemonade.
"But nothing mysterious ever happens here in Belltown."
Henry grinned. "That's what you think!" he said.
"The Lemonade Detectives have solved five mysteries so far."
He pointed to two signs on the lemonade stand.
One of the signs was about the lemonade they were selling.
The other sign was about The Lemonade Detective Agency.
Henry, Maggie, and their friend Cole had started the agency a couple of weeks ago.
At first it had been just a lemonade stand.
Maggie had started selling lemonade to earn money for horseback-riding lessons.
Her parents had promised to pay half of her lesson fees, but she had to pay the rest herself.
Maggie's lemonade stand had been a big success from the start.
On her very first day, she'd made a lot of money.
But then the money had disappeared from her cashbox!
Henry and Cole had helped her figure out who had taken it.
After that the three of them had decided to open the detective agency.
The teenage girl looked at the signs.
"Oh right. I heard you helped my neighbor figure out how a groundhog was getting into his garden.
That doesn't sound like a very exciting mystery to me," the girl went on.
"But if anything mysterious happens, I'll let you know."
"Okay," Henry said. "Enjoy your lemonade."
"Thanks." The teenage girl took another sip, and then walked away.
"She's right, you know," Maggie told Henry.
"Our last few mysteries have been kind of boring."
"I know," Henry said. "Finding Mr. Flinn's lost keys wasn't very interesting.
Neither was the groundhog case, or the one about the missing library book.
But we still got paid our detective fee each time, so we shouldn't complain."
"That's true," Maggie agreed.
"If we solve a few more cases, and keep selling lots of lemonade, I'll have enough money for lessons soon."
She dropped the quarter from the teenage girl into the cashbox.
"That's another 25 cents for my horseback-riding fund."
"You mean one-third of 25 cents," Henry corrected her.
"You have to split the money with Cole and me."
Maggie shook her head.
"Cole doesn't get to split the lemonade money when he's not here.
So I get to keep one-half of 25 cents."
"Oops, you're right," Henry said.
"I forgot that Cole has swim-team tryouts again today."
"Why does he want to be on the swim team?" Maggie wondered.
"Hanging out at the lemonade stand seems a lot more fun than swimming laps all day long."
"Cole loves sports," Henry reminded her. "And he's a really good swimmer."
"He's lucky that someone on the team just moved away," Maggie said.
"Otherwise he wouldn't have a chance to try out until next summer."
Henry nodded. "Cole is the youngest kid trying to make the team," he said.
"But it sounds like he did really well on the first day of tryouts.
I bet he'll make the team."
"I know why he's such a good swimmer," Maggie said with a laugh.
"Why?" Henry asked her.
"Because he spends so much time watching his pet frogs swim around their tank!"
Henry grinned. Cole was crazy about reptiles and amphibians.
He had several large tanks in his bedroom. One tank was full of frogs.
Another tank was for his turtles, and a third one held a snake.
Cole took very good care of all his pets.
"Yeah," Henry said, still smiling.
"Frogs are good swimmers, and so is Cole!"
"Hey, here comes Cole now." Maggie pointed down the street.
Henry was surprised to see Cole running toward them from the direction of the town pool.
"I wonder why he's back so soon," Henry said.
"Tryouts just started a few minutes ago. They shouldn't be over for hours."
Maggie shrugged.
"Maybe the coach already told him that he didn't make the team."
"I doubt it," Henry said, still watching Cole.
"I don't think they even started swimming yet today.
Look! Cole's hair isn't wet."
"That's a smart observation, Detective Henry," Maggie said with a laugh.
Cole was closer by now. Henry could see that he was very upset.
"What's wrong?" Henry asked. "Why aren't you at the pool?"
Cole skidded to a stop in front of the lemonade stand.
"I need your help!" he cried.
"Someone dumped a bunch of frogs into the pool right before tryouts started.
And everyone thinks I'm the one who did it!"