My guess is that you would find several scattered references to deafness in Twain's later writings (especially those not published in his lifetime), when he rails against God for burdening us with dire ailments. One example would be the episode starting in Chapter VII of The Mysterious Stranger. Satan changes Nikolaus's fate to give him an early death by drowning: "If I had not done this, Nikolaus would save Lisa, then he would catch cold from his drenching; one of your race's fantastic and desolating scarlet fevers would follow, with pathetic after-effects; for forty-six years he would lie in his bed a paralytic log, deaf, dumb, blind, and praying night and day for the blessed relief of death..." Taken from the traditional version (p. 698 of The Portable Mark Twain). Your student might also try the Berkeley edition of Mysterious Stranger manuscripts. I'm too lazy to find this, but isn't some of that outrage likely based on Clemens's memories of a Hannibal boy who went deaf very young? The name "Tom Nash" sticks in memory, but might be wrong. Somewhere in the autobiographical writings (or a letter?) Clemens describes a late visit to Hannibal where this now old man came up to him in front of a crowd, glanced at his fellow citizens, and more or less shouted, "Same damn fools, Sam!" Anyway, I suspect you'll find bitter references to deafness sprinkled through those later writings that focus on Twain's quarrels with God. Mark Coburn