diff --git a/README b/README
index 35f0225..033f4a5 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -238,7 +238,6 @@ v0.9 FEAROW
 
 * ctr forms of ciphers are missing (blowfish-ctr, aes128-ctr, aes256-ctr)
 
-* would be nice to have an ftp-like interface to sftp (put, get, chdir...)
 * cool sftp extension: retreive MD5 or SHA1 of section of a file
 * SFTPClient.from_url('sftp://robey@arch.lag.net/folder/filename', 'r+')
     keep cache of opened sftp clients by (host, port, username)
diff --git a/paramiko/file.py b/paramiko/file.py
index c0601b0..13d36ac 100644
--- a/paramiko/file.py
+++ b/paramiko/file.py
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@ class BufferedFile (object):
         # (these may be different because we buffer for line reading)
         self._pos = self._realpos = 0
 
+    def __del__(self):
+        self.close()
+        
     def __iter__(self):
         """
         Returns an iterator that can be used to iterate over the lines in this
diff --git a/paramiko/sftp_client.py b/paramiko/sftp_client.py
index 488a415..ab4f505 100644
--- a/paramiko/sftp_client.py
+++ b/paramiko/sftp_client.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 Client-mode SFTP support.
 """
 
+import os
 from sftp import *
 from sftp_attr import SFTPAttributes
 from sftp_file import SFTPFile
@@ -428,6 +429,62 @@ class SFTPClient (BaseSFTP):
         @since: 1.4
         """
         return self._cwd
+    
+    def put(self, localpath, remotepath):
+        """
+        Copy a local file (C{localpath}) to the SFTP server as C{remotepath}.
+        Any exception raised by operations will be passed through.  This
+        method is primarily provided as a convenience.
+        
+        @param localpath: the local file to copy
+        @type localpath: str
+        @param remotepath: the destination path on the SFTP server
+        @type remotepath: str
+        
+        @since: 1.4
+        """
+        fl = file(localpath, 'rb')
+        fr = self.file(remotepath, 'wb')
+        size = 0
+        while True:
+            data = fl.read(16384)
+            if len(data) == 0:
+                break
+            fr.write(data)
+            size += len(data)
+        fl.close()
+        fr.close()
+        s = self.stat(remotepath)
+        if s.st_size != size:
+            raise IOError('size mismatch in put!  %d != %d' % (s.st_size, size))
+    
+    def get(self, remotepath, localpath):
+        """
+        Copy a remote file (C{remotepath}) from the SFTP server to the local
+        host as C{localpath}.  Any exception raised by operations will be
+        passed through.  This method is primarily provided as a convenience.
+        
+        @param remotepath: the remote file to copy
+        @type remotepath: str
+        @param localpath: the destination path on the local host
+        @type localpath: str
+        
+        @since: 1.4
+        """
+        fr = self.file(remotepath, 'rb')
+        fl = file(localpath, 'wb')
+        size = 0
+        while True:
+            data = fr.read(16384)
+            if len(data) == 0:
+                break
+            fl.write(data)
+            size += len(data)
+        fl.close()
+        fr.close()
+        s = os.stat(localpath)
+        if s.st_size != size:
+            raise IOError('size mismatch in get!  %d != %d' % (s.st_size, size))
 
 
     ###  internals...
diff --git a/paramiko/sftp_file.py b/paramiko/sftp_file.py
index c173d1c..36d6772 100644
--- a/paramiko/sftp_file.py
+++ b/paramiko/sftp_file.py
@@ -43,7 +43,14 @@ class SFTPFile (BufferedFile):
 
     def close(self):
         BufferedFile.close(self)
-        self.sftp._request(CMD_CLOSE, self.handle)
+        try:
+            self.sftp._request(CMD_CLOSE, self.handle)
+        except EOFError:
+            # may have outlived the Transport connection
+            pass
+        except IOError:
+            # may have outlived the Transport connection
+            pass
 
     def _read(self, size):
         size = min(size, self.MAX_REQUEST_SIZE)
diff --git a/tests/test_sftp.py b/tests/test_sftp.py
index f4b5fea..992c9dc 100755
--- a/tests/test_sftp.py
+++ b/tests/test_sftp.py
@@ -540,3 +540,32 @@ class SFTPTest (unittest.TestCase):
             except:
                 pass
 
+    def test_J_get_put(self):
+        """
+        verify that get/put work.
+        """
+        import os, warnings
+        warnings.filterwarnings('ignore', 'tempnam.*')
+        
+        localname = os.tempnam()
+        text = 'All I wanted was a plastic bunny rabbit.\n'
+        f = open(localname, 'w')
+        f.write(text)
+        f.close()
+        sftp.put(localname, FOLDER + '/bunny.txt')
+        
+        f = sftp.open(FOLDER + '/bunny.txt', 'r')
+        self.assertEquals(text, f.read(128))
+        f.close()
+        
+        os.unlink(localname)
+        localname = os.tempnam()
+        sftp.get(FOLDER + '/bunny.txt', localname)
+        
+        f = open(localname, 'r')
+        self.assertEquals(text, f.read(128))
+        f.close()
+        
+        os.unlink(localname)
+        sftp.unlink(FOLDER + '/bunny.txt')
+