diff --git a/Lib/httplib.py b/Lib/httplib.py
index 3a83018..05ddf12 100644
--- a/Lib/httplib.py
+++ b/Lib/httplib.py
@@ -624,7 +624,7 @@
                 raise IncompleteRead(s)
             s.append(chunk)
             amt -= len(chunk)
-        return "".join(s)
+        return b"".join(s)
 
     def getheader(self, name, default=None):
         if self.msg is None:
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_httplib.py b/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
index 632c2bc..9abeb61 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@
             NoEOFStringIO)
         resp = httplib.HTTPResponse(sock, method="HEAD")
         resp.begin()
-        if resp.read() != "":
+        if resp.read():
             self.fail("Did not expect response from HEAD request")
         resp.close()