"I think a break is most certainly called for." It's not as though he's doing any good at the moment, and his poor brain is overworking itself.

"I am not an intellectual man. Blood and ashes, I'm lucky I can read at all, plenty of fellows like me never learn. This is like trying to read something written backwards in a language I barely know."

Mat does, indeed, help himself to a bit of food. It certainly can't hurt any, and perhaps the fuel will aide his mind in working a bit better. Why couldn't this be something simple, like catching something? He's damned good at that.

"I can't believe I went from never studying a thing to all of a sudden it's almost all I do."