diff --git a/Changes b/Changes
index b55b49f..dca6a52 100644
--- a/Changes
+++ b/Changes
@@ -1,4 +1,12 @@
 
+version 1.40; 2016-03-10
+  * Get arg_string.t to compile in perl v5.6
+  * Add information for how to contribute to Carp.
+
+version 1.39; 2016-03-06
+  * bugfix: longmess() should return the error in scalar context
+  (CPANRT#107225)
+
 version 1.38; 2015-11-06
   * stable release of changes since v1.36
 
diff --git a/lib/Carp.pm b/lib/Carp.pm
index 9421c74..92f8866 100644
--- a/lib/Carp.pm
+++ b/lib/Carp.pm
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ BEGIN {
     }
 }
 
-our $VERSION = '1.38';
+our $VERSION = '1.40';
 $VERSION =~ tr/_//d;
 
 our $MaxEvalLen = 0;
@@ -445,7 +445,9 @@ sub long_error_loc {
 }
 
 sub longmess_heavy {
-    return @_ if ref( $_[0] );    # don't break references as exceptions
+    if ( ref( $_[0] ) ) {   # don't break references as exceptions
+        return wantarray ? @_ : $_[0];
+    }
     my $i = long_error_loc();
     return ret_backtrace( $i, @_ );
 }
@@ -906,6 +908,12 @@ call die() or warn(), as appropriate.
 L<Carp::Always>,
 L<Carp::Clan>
 
+=head1 CONTRIBUTING
+
+L<Carp> is maintained by the perl 5 porters as part of the core perl 5
+version control repository. Please see the L<perlhack> perldoc for how to
+submit patches and contribute to it.
+
 =head1 AUTHOR
 
 The Carp module first appeared in Larry Wall's perl 5.000 distribution.
diff --git a/lib/Carp/Heavy.pm b/lib/Carp/Heavy.pm
index 91a42d1..b05d758 100644
--- a/lib/Carp/Heavy.pm
+++ b/lib/Carp/Heavy.pm
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ package Carp::Heavy;
 
 use Carp ();
 
-our $VERSION = '1.38';
+our $VERSION = '1.40';
 $VERSION =~ tr/_//d;
 
 # Carp::Heavy was merged into Carp in version 1.12.  Any mismatched versions
diff --git a/t/Carp.t b/t/Carp.t
index a18e3b4..9ecdf88 100644
--- a/t/Carp.t
+++ b/t/Carp.t
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ no warnings "once";
 use Config;
 
 use IPC::Open3 1.0103 qw(open3);
-use Test::More tests => 65;
+use Test::More tests => 66;
 
 sub runperl {
     my(%args) = @_;
@@ -39,6 +39,24 @@ BEGIN {
   );
 }
 
+package MyClass;
+
+sub new { return bless +{ field => ['value1', 'SecondVal'] }; }
+
+package main;
+
+{
+    my $err = Carp::longmess(MyClass->new);
+
+    # See:
+    # https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=107225
+    is_deeply(
+        $err->{field},
+        ['value1', 'SecondVal',],
+        "longmess returns sth meaningful in scalar context when passed a ref.",
+    );
+}
+
 {
     local $SIG{__WARN__} = sub {
         like $_[0], qr/ok (\d+)\n at.+\b(?i:carp\.t) line \d+\.$/, 'ok 2\n';
diff --git a/t/arg_string.t b/t/arg_string.t
index 42b43b1..dbd2e6e 100644
--- a/t/arg_string.t
+++ b/t/arg_string.t
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ my $e9 = sprintf "%02x", (($] ge 5.007_003)
                           : ((ord("A") == 193)
                              ? 0x51
                              : 0xE9));
-my $chr_e9 = chr utf8::unicode_to_native(0xe9);
+my $chr_e9 = chr eval "0x$e9";
 my $nl_as_hex = sprintf "%x", ord("\n");
 
 like lm(3), qr/main::lm\(3\)/;