diff -r 78658affc20d Lib/test/test_email/test_email.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_email/test_email.py	Tue Mar 13 19:50:32 2012 +0000
+++ b/Lib/test/test_email/test_email.py	Tue Mar 13 21:55:06 2012 +0000
@@ -48,9 +48,26 @@
 EMPTYSTRING = ''
 SPACE = ' '
 
+class SubMessage(Message):
+    """Used in tests that verify that the Message API is
+    fully accessible and functioning properly when called
+    from a subclass.
+
+    """
+    def get(self, key, failobj):
+        super().get(key, failobj)
+
 
 # Test various aspects of the Message class's API
 class TestMessageAPI(TestEmailBase):
+
+    def test_get_via_subclass(self):
+        #test that get doesn't throw an AttributeError
+        #when called from a subclass.
+        m = SubMessage()
+        ct = m.get('content-type', None) 
+        self.assertTrue(ct)
+
     def test_get_all(self):
         eq = self.assertEqual
         msg = self._msgobj('msg_20.txt')