diff -r 6ef65516fd7a -r 6394321ef4ec Modules/_pickle.c
--- a/Modules/_pickle.c	Tue Aug 09 16:07:01 2011 -0500
+++ b/Modules/_pickle.c	Wed Aug 10 12:10:06 2011 +0100
@@ -4804,7 +4804,7 @@
 static int
 load_put(UnpicklerObject *self)
 {
-    PyObject *key, *value;
+    PyObject *value;
     Py_ssize_t idx;
     Py_ssize_t len;
     char *s;
@@ -4817,11 +4817,8 @@
         return stack_underflow();
     value = self->stack->data[Py_SIZE(self->stack) - 1];
 
-    key = PyLong_FromString(s, NULL, 10);
-    if (key == NULL)
-        return -1;
-    idx = PyLong_AsSsize_t(key);
-    Py_DECREF(key);
+    idx = PyOS_strtol(s, NULL, 10);
+
     if (idx == -1 && PyErr_Occurred())
         return -1;