diff --git a/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb b/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb
index 17ce3ec6b..c5f4b0fe6 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/faces/help.rb
@@ -1,117 +1,85 @@
 require 'puppet/faces'
 require 'puppet/util/command_line'
+require 'pathname'
+require 'erb'
 
 Puppet::Faces.define(:help, '0.0.1') do
-  HelpSummaryFormat = '  %-18s  %s'
-
   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
 
-      # Finally, build up the help text.  Maybe ERB would have been nicer
-      # after all.  Oh, well. --daniel 2011-04-11
-      message = []
-      if args.length == 0 then
-        message << "Use: puppet <subcommand> [options] <action> [options]"
-        message << ""
-        message << "Available subcommands, from Puppet Faces:"
-        Puppet::Faces.faces.sort.each do |name|
-          face = Puppet::Faces[name, :current]
-          message << format(HelpSummaryFormat, face.name, face.summary)
-        end
-
-        unless legacy_applications.empty? then # great victory when this is true!
-          message << ""
-          message << "Available applications, soon to be ported to Faces:"
-          legacy_applications.each do |appname|
-            summary = horribly_extract_summary_from appname
-            message << format(HelpSummaryFormat, appname, summary)
-          end
-        end
-
-        message << ""
-        message << <<EOT.split("\n")
-See 'puppet help <subcommand> <action>' for help on a specific subcommand action.
-See 'puppet help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand.
-See 'puppet man  <subcommand>' for the full man page.
-Puppet v#{Puppet::PUPPETVERSION}
-EOT
-      elsif args.length == 1 then
-        message << "Use: puppet #{face.name} [options] <action> [options]"
-        message << ""
+      template = case args.length
+                 when 0 then erb_template 'global.erb'
+                 when 1 then erb_template 'face.erb'
+                 when 2 then erb_template 'action.erb'
+                 else
+                   fail ArgumentError, "Too many arguments to help action"
+                 end
 
-        message << "Available actions:"
-        face.actions.each do |actionname|
-          action = face.get_action(actionname)
-          message << format(HelpSummaryFormat, action.name, action.summary)
-        end
-
-      elsif args.length == 2
-        "REVISIT: gotta write this code."
-      else
-        raise ArgumentError, "help only takes two arguments, a face name and an action"
-      end
-
-      message
+      return ERB.new(template, nil, '%').result(binding)
     end
   end
 
+  def erb_template(name)
+    (Pathname(__FILE__).dirname + "help" + name).read
+  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/lib/puppet/faces/help/action.erb b/lib/puppet/faces/help/action.erb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..eaf131464
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/puppet/faces/help/action.erb
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Use: puppet <%= face.name %> [options] <%= action.name %> [options]
+
+Summary: <%= action.summary %>
diff --git a/lib/puppet/faces/help/face.erb b/lib/puppet/faces/help/face.erb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..efe5fd809
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/puppet/faces/help/face.erb
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+Use: puppet <%= face.name %> [options] <action> [options]
+
+Available actions:
+% face.actions.each do |actionname|
+%   action = face.get_action(actionname)
+  <%= action.name.to_s.ljust(16) %>  <%= action.summary %>
+% end
diff --git a/lib/puppet/faces/help/global.erb b/lib/puppet/faces/help/global.erb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e123367a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/puppet/faces/help/global.erb
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+puppet <subcommand> [options] <action> [options]
+
+Available subcommands, from Puppet Faces:
+% Puppet::Faces.faces.sort.each do |name|
+%   face = Puppet::Faces[name, :current]
+  <%= face.name.to_s.ljust(16) %>  <%= face.summary %>
+% end
+
+% unless legacy_applications.empty? then # great victory when this is true!
+Available applications, soon to be ported to Faces:
+%   legacy_applications.each do |appname|
+%     summary = horribly_extract_summary_from appname
+  <%= appname.to_s.ljust(16) %>  <%= summary %>
+%   end
+% end
+
+See 'puppet help <subcommand> <action>' for help on a specific subcommand action.
+See 'puppet help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand.
+See 'puppet man  <subcommand>' for the full man page.
+Puppet v<%= Puppet::PUPPETVERSION %>
diff --git a/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb b/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb
index 61f1947f3..1399abfef 100644
--- a/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/faces/help_spec.rb
@@ -1,105 +1,103 @@
 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')
   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)
   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