diff --git a/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/Stream.h b/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/Stream.h
index 58bbf752f..007b4bc66 100644
--- a/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/Stream.h
+++ b/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/Stream.h
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ readBytesBetween( pre_string, terminator, buffer, length)
 
 class Stream : public Print
 {
-  private:
+  protected:
     unsigned long _timeout;      // number of milliseconds to wait for the next char before aborting timed read
     unsigned long _startMillis;  // used for timeout measurement
     int timedRead();    // private method to read stream with timeout
diff --git a/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/WString.h b/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/WString.h
index 947325e5f..642b016c5 100644
--- a/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/WString.h
+++ b/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/WString.h
@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@ public:
 	void getBytes(unsigned char *buf, unsigned int bufsize, unsigned int index=0) const;
 	void toCharArray(char *buf, unsigned int bufsize, unsigned int index=0) const
 		{getBytes((unsigned char *)buf, bufsize, index);}
+	const char * c_str() const { return buffer; }
 
 	// search
 	int indexOf( char ch ) const;