Merchandise by Adam

Puzzle explanation

The quotation, taking every third letter reading down by columns was: “He said ‘I look for butterflies / That sleep among the wheat: …’ ” from Chapter 8 of Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking-Glass. This continues “ ‘… I make them into mutton-pies, / And sell them in the street.’ ” which defined MUTTON-PIES as the merchandise. Across answers are shown in the table below. A rough estimate of the number of letters in eleven words (50, say), divided into the number of cells in the grid (143), gives 2.86, which suggests a third of the letters are required for the quotation.

Clue explanations

Conventions: * = anagram, < = reversal

No Answer Explanation
Across
1 LYCOSA ONLY − ON [leg] + COS + A
6 CHICA CHICANE − NE
10 PLATONICS TONIC in ALPS *
12 ARCHED PARCHED − P
14 HAUTE HE about (A + UT)
15 DOLINA DO + LIN + A
16 PAN AM PANAM(a City)
17 DOMED DOOMED − O
18 CLEEPS CLEEK − K + P + S
19 BESETS BETS about S(pars)E
21 HATHA (Anne) HATHAWAY − WAY
22 UROKINASE URINE about (OK and AS)
26 QUIRE SQUIRE − S
28 BATTER Two definitions; one refers to cricket
31 FUSING CON + answer = CONFUSING
32 MOTTE ME about OTT
33 FEIGN GI < in FEN
34 INSIDE I + NS + IDE
35 FLEES FLEXES − X [signature]
36 PET-SIT PETS + IT
37 WELSH AUNT SHAUN in WELT
38 SLOTS SOTS about L
39 STAGED DEGAS < about T
Down
1 ASHAMED SHAME in AD
2 YIELDS Y + IS LED *
3 OPCODE PC in (w)OODE(n)
4 CORDOBA CORD + OBA
5 STANE TAN in (E + S) <
6 INHALANT ALAN in THIN *; reference meaning of name
7 CLUPEA CLUMP − M + EA
8 HITACHI HIT + A + CHI(c)
9 CHENET CET(a) about HEN
11 CAMSHO CAM + SHO(w)
13 DIPTERIST DIP + SITTER *
20 SURGEFUL (FUGUES + L + R) *
22 RINGLET Composite anagram of ALTERING using A
23 KEFFEL KEF + FEL(t)
24 SEMIPED IMPEDES *
25 RATITAE (IT + A) in RATE
26 USNEAS Composite anagram of TAUTNESS using TT
27 QUISTS QUITS about S
29 TONING (s)TONING
30 BEDEWS B [Bravo] + SWEDE <
32 TESSA CONTESSA − CON
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