diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index f1319f42a9..f0ae8cef7c 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@ Thu Sep 21 22:56:20 2006  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
 
 	* ext/extmk.rb: expand ruby executable names.
 
+Thu Sep 21 20:19:22 2006  Yukihiro Matsumoto  <matz@ruby-lang.org>
+
+	* string.c (str_new3): embed shorter strings more eagerly.
+
 Thu Sep 21 17:44:49 2006  Yukihiro Matsumoto  <matz@ruby-lang.org>
 
 	* string.c (rb_str_startwith): a new method to check if a string
diff --git a/string.c b/string.c
index 64da8f337f..a8ff285c7d 100644
--- a/string.c
+++ b/string.c
@@ -191,11 +191,18 @@ str_new3(VALUE klass, VALUE str)
 {
     VALUE str2 = str_alloc(klass);
 
-    FL_SET(str2, STR_NOEMBED);
-    RSTRING(str2)->as.heap.len = RSTRING_LEN(str);
-    RSTRING(str2)->as.heap.ptr = RSTRING_PTR(str);
-    RSTRING(str2)->as.heap.aux.shared = str;
-    FL_SET(str2, ELTS_SHARED);
+    if (RSTRING_LEN(str) <= RSTRING_EMBED_LEN_MAX) {
+	STR_SET_EMBED(str);
+	memcpy(RSTRING_PTR(str2), RSTRING_PTR(str), RSTRING_LEN(str)+1);
+	STR_SET_EMBED_LEN(str2, RSTRING_LEN(str));
+    }
+    else {
+	FL_SET(str2, STR_NOEMBED);
+	RSTRING(str2)->as.heap.len = RSTRING_LEN(str);
+	RSTRING(str2)->as.heap.ptr = RSTRING_PTR(str);
+	RSTRING(str2)->as.heap.aux.shared = str;
+	FL_SET(str2, ELTS_SHARED);
+    }
     OBJ_INFECT(str2, str);
 
     return str2;