As a "native Missourian" I'm aware of all the discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation. Twain even prefaces Huck Finn with an explanation of the different dialects used. However, he does not always spell a word the way it is pronounced; nor does he always spell it according to the dictionary. For example, in Pudd'nhead Wilson, he spells St. Louis, Sent Louis--the way it is pronounced by many in the region. However, in Huck Finn, he spells Cairo according to the dictionary spelling when it is pronounced by natives as "Kayroh"--like the syrup. Even Missouri is pronounced in two ways, depending upon where the Missourian is from. Around the turn of the century (according to the book _Down in the Holler_ by Randolph and Wilson) "Missourians were wrangling about the pronunciation. 'Nobody says MISS-SOU-RY but the puritans and softheads,' wrote a prominent newspaperman. 'The correct pronunciation is MIZ-ZOU-RAH.'" So, to get back to "smouch," according to the above quoted book, "The ou of "snout" is pronounced so that the word rhymes with "shoot." A "snout" is pronounced "snoot." This is the closest reference I could find to "smouch." My MIZZOURAH guess would therefore be that it was pronounced "smooch." Twain had, after all, a "Mizzourah aksint" rather than a Southern drawl.