diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index a783cdc93f..104066a98e 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+Tue Feb 12 10:25:02 2008
+
+	* lib/rdoc/rdoc.rb:  Wrap parse_files' read in version check for
+	  backwards compatibility.
+
 Tue Feb 12 10:15:14 2008  NARUSE, Yui  <naruse@ruby-lang.org>
 
 	* ruby.c (load_file): enc must effect source encoding.
diff --git a/lib/rdoc/rdoc.rb b/lib/rdoc/rdoc.rb
index 4b9fa88707..6b7de2f3b7 100644
--- a/lib/rdoc/rdoc.rb
+++ b/lib/rdoc/rdoc.rb
@@ -192,7 +192,12 @@ module RDoc
       file_list.each do |fn|
         $stderr.printf("\n%*s: ", width, fn) unless options.quiet
 
-        content = File.open(fn, "r:ascii-8bit") {|f| f.read}
+        content = if RUBY_VERSION >= '1.9' then
+                    File.open(fn, "r:ascii-8bit") { |f| f.read }
+                  else
+                    File.read fn
+                  end
+
         if /coding:\s*(\S+)/ =~ content[/\A(?:.*\n){0,2}/]
           if enc = Encoding.find($1)
             content.force_encoding(enc)