diff --git a/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb b/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb
index 26f839735..29a4a62f7 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb
@@ -1,90 +1,96 @@
 require 'puppet/faces'
 require 'puppet/util/command_line'
 require 'pathname'
 require 'erb'
 
 Puppet::Faces.define(:help, '0.0.1') do
   summary "Displays help about puppet subcommands"
 
   action(:help) do
     summary "Display help about faces and their actions."
 
     option "--version VERSION" do
       desc "Which version of the interface to show help for"
     end
 
     when_invoked do |*args|
       # Check our invocation, because we want varargs and can't do defaults
       # yet.  REVISIT: when we do option defaults, and positional options, we
       # should rewrite this to use those. --daniel 2011-04-04
       options = args.pop
       if options.nil? or args.length > 2 then
         raise ArgumentError, "help only takes two (optional) arguments, a face name, and an action"
       end
 
       version = :current
       if options.has_key? :version then
         if options[:version].to_s !~ /^current$/i then
           version = options[:version]
         else
           if args.length == 0 then
             raise ArgumentError, "version only makes sense when a face is given"
           end
         end
       end
 
       # Name those parameters...
       facename, actionname = args
       face   = facename ? Puppet::Faces[facename.to_sym, version] : nil
       action = (face and actionname) ? face.get_action(actionname.to_sym) : nil
 
-      template = case args.length
-                 when 0 then erb 'global.erb'
-                 when 1 then erb 'face.erb'
-                 when 2 then erb 'action.erb'
-                 else
-                   fail ArgumentError, "Too many arguments to help action"
-                 end
+      case args.length
+      when 0 then
+        template = erb 'global.erb'
+      when 1 then
+        face or fail ArgumentError, "Unable to load face #{facename}"
+        template = erb 'face.erb'
+      when 2 then
+        face or fail ArgumentError, "Unable to load face #{facename}"
+        action or fail ArgumentError, "Unable to load action #{actionname} from #{face}"
+        template = erb 'action.erb'
+      else
+        fail ArgumentError, "Too many arguments to help action"
+      end
 
       # Run the ERB template in our current binding, including all the local
       # variables we established just above. --daniel 2011-04-11
       return template.result(binding)
     end
   end
 
   def erb(name)
     template = (Pathname(__FILE__).dirname + "help" + name)
     erb = ERB.new(template.read, nil, '%')
     erb.filename = template.to_s
     return erb
   end
 
   def legacy_applications
     # The list of applications, less those that are duplicated as a face.
     Puppet::Util::CommandLine.available_subcommands.reject do |appname|
       Puppet::Faces.face? appname.to_sym, :current or
         # ...this is a nasty way to exclude non-applications. :(
         %w{faces_base indirection_base}.include? appname
     end.sort
   end
 
   def horribly_extract_summary_from(appname)
     begin
       require "puppet/application/#{appname}"
       help = Puppet::Application[appname].help.split("\n")
       # Now we find the line with our summary, extract it, and return it.  This
       # depends on the implementation coincidence of how our pages are
       # formatted.  If we can't match the pattern we expect we return the empty
       # string to ensure we don't blow up in the summary. --daniel 2011-04-11
       while line = help.shift do
         if md = /^puppet-#{appname}\([^\)]+\) -- (.*)$/.match(line) then
           return md[1]
         end
       end
     rescue Exception
       # Damn, but I hate this: we just ignore errors here, no matter what
       # class they are.  Meh.
     end
     return ''
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb b/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb
index 1399abfef..aa811c4b3 100644
--- a/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb
@@ -1,103 +1,104 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 require 'puppet/faces/help'
 
 describe Puppet::Faces[:help, '0.0.1'] do
   it "should have a help action" do
     subject.should be_action :help
   end
 
   it "should have a default action of help" do
     pending "REVISIT: we don't support default actions yet"
   end
 
   it "should accept a call with no arguments" do
     expect { subject.help() }.should_not raise_error
   end
 
   it "should accept a face name" do
     expect { subject.help(:help) }.should_not raise_error
   end
 
   it "should accept a face and action name" do
     expect { subject.help(:help, :help) }.should_not raise_error
   end
 
   it "should fail if more than a face and action are given" do
     expect { subject.help(:help, :help, :for_the_love_of_god) }.
       should raise_error ArgumentError
   end
 
   it "should treat :current and 'current' identically" do
-    subject.help(:help, :current).should ==
-      subject.help(:help, 'current')
+    subject.help(:help, :version => :current).should ==
+      subject.help(:help, :version => 'current')
   end
 
   it "should complain when the request version of a face is missing" do
     expect { subject.help(:huzzah, :bar, :version => '17.0.0') }.
       should raise_error Puppet::Error
   end
 
   it "should find a face by version" do
     face = Puppet::Faces[:huzzah, :current]
-    subject.help(:huzzah, face.version).should == subject.help(:huzzah, :current)
+    subject.help(:huzzah, :version => face.version).
+      should == subject.help(:huzzah, :version => :current)
   end
 
   context "when listing subcommands" do
     subject { Puppet::Faces[:help, :current].help }
 
     # Check a precondition for the next block; if this fails you have
     # something odd in your set of faces, and we skip testing things that
     # matter. --daniel 2011-04-10
     it "should have at least one face with a summary" do
       Puppet::Faces.faces.should be_any do |name|
         Puppet::Faces[name, :current].summary
       end
     end
 
     Puppet::Faces.faces.each do |name|
       face = Puppet::Faces[name, :current]
       summary = face.summary
 
       it { should have_matching_element %r{ #{name} } }
       it { should have_matching_element %r{ #{name} +#{summary}} } if summary
     end
 
     Puppet::Util::CommandLine.available_subcommands do |name|
       it { should have_matching_element %r{ #{name} } }
     end
   end
 
   context "when listing legacy applications" do
     let :help do Puppet::Faces[:help, :current] end
 
     # If we don't, these tests are ... less than useful, because they assume
     # it.  When this breaks you should consider ditching the entire feature
     # and tests, but if not work out how to fake one. --daniel 2011-04-11
     it "should have at least one legacy application" do
       help.legacy_applications.should have_at_least(1).item
     end
 
     # Meh.  This is nasty, but we can't control the other list; the specific
     # bug that caused these to be listed is annoyingly subtle and has a nasty
     # fix, so better to have a "fail if you do something daft" trigger in
     # place here, I think. --daniel 2011-04-11
     %w{faces_base indirection_base}.each do |name|
       it "should not list the #{name} application" do
         help.legacy_applications.should_not include name
       end
     end
 
     Puppet::Faces[:help, :current].legacy_applications.each do |appname|
       it "should list #{appname} in the help output" do
         help.help.should have_matching_element %r{ #{appname} }
       end
 
       summary = Puppet::Faces[:help, :current].horribly_extract_summary_from(appname)
       if summary then
         it "should display the summary of #{appname}" do
           help.help.should have_matching_element %r{ #{summary}\b}
         end
       end
     end
   end
 end