diff --git a/rocker-runtime/src/main/java/com/fizzed/rocker/RockerStringify.java b/rocker-runtime/src/main/java/com/fizzed/rocker/RockerStringify.java
index 6b0d03d..756e4e6 100644
--- a/rocker-runtime/src/main/java/com/fizzed/rocker/RockerStringify.java
+++ b/rocker-runtime/src/main/java/com/fizzed/rocker/RockerStringify.java
@@ -22,8 +22,10 @@
 public interface RockerStringify {
     
     static public final RockerStringify RAW = new RawStringify();
-    //static public final RockerStringify HTML = RockerRuntime.createDefaultHtmlStringify();
-    static public final RockerStringify HTML = new DefaultHtmlStringify();
+    // delegate creating the default HTML stringify so that if guava is on classpath, rocker will leverage guava's
+    // fast "escape" of HTML vs. the one built-in with rocker
+    static public final RockerStringify HTML = RockerRuntime.createDefaultHtmlStringify();
+//    static public final RockerStringify HTML = new DefaultHtmlStringify();
     
     String s(String str);
     
diff --git a/rocker-runtime/src/main/java/com/fizzed/rocker/runtime/GuavaHtmlStringify.java b/rocker-runtime/src/main/java/com/fizzed/rocker/runtime/GuavaHtmlStringify.java
index 03d4447..cffc452 100644
--- a/rocker-runtime/src/main/java/com/fizzed/rocker/runtime/GuavaHtmlStringify.java
+++ b/rocker-runtime/src/main/java/com/fizzed/rocker/runtime/GuavaHtmlStringify.java
@@ -30,6 +30,10 @@ public GuavaHtmlStringify() {
     
     @Override
     public String s(String str) {
+        // guava escape does not like nulls
+        if (str == null) {
+            return null;
+        }
         return this.escaper.escape(str);
     }
     
diff --git a/rocker-test-template/pom.xml b/rocker-test-template/pom.xml
index 9e31979..a8165b3 100644
--- a/rocker-test-template/pom.xml
+++ b/rocker-test-template/pom.xml
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@
         </dependency>
         
         <!-- test -->
-        <!---->
+
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.google.guava</groupId>
             <artifactId>guava</artifactId>