diff --git a/src/pkg/html/template/escape_test.go b/src/pkg/html/template/escape_test.go
index befdb215be..58383a6cd4 100644
--- a/src/pkg/html/template/escape_test.go
+++ b/src/pkg/html/template/escape_test.go
@@ -655,6 +655,11 @@ func TestEscape(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, test := range tests {
 		tmpl := New(test.name)
 		tmpl = Must(tmpl.Parse(test.input))
+		// Check for bug 6459: Tree field was not set in Parse.
+		if tmpl.Tree != tmpl.text.Tree {
+			t.Errorf("%s: tree not set properly", test.name)
+			continue
+		}
 		b := new(bytes.Buffer)
 		if err := tmpl.Execute(b, data); err != nil {
 			t.Errorf("%s: template execution failed: %s", test.name, err)
diff --git a/src/pkg/html/template/template.go b/src/pkg/html/template/template.go
index db7244e424..11cc34a50a 100644
--- a/src/pkg/html/template/template.go
+++ b/src/pkg/html/template/template.go
@@ -128,8 +128,10 @@ func (t *Template) Parse(src string) (*Template, error) {
 		if tmpl == nil {
 			tmpl = t.new(name)
 		}
+		// Restore our record of this text/template to its unescaped original state.
 		tmpl.escaped = false
 		tmpl.text = v
+		tmpl.Tree = v.Tree
 	}
 	return t, nil
 }