diff --git a/src/annoylib.h b/src/annoylib.h
index 7bfaa108..7f32b22d 100644
--- a/src/annoylib.h
+++ b/src/annoylib.h
@@ -763,7 +763,7 @@ template<typename S, typename T, typename Distance, typename Random>
       _allocate_size(_n_nodes + 1);
       S item = _n_nodes++;
       Node* m = _get(item);
-      m->n_descendants = (S)indices.size();
+      m->n_descendants = is_root ? _n_items : (S)indices.size();
 
       // Using std::copy instead of a loop seems to resolve issues #3 and #13,
       // probably because gcc 4.8 goes overboard with optimizations.
@@ -814,7 +814,7 @@ template<typename S, typename T, typename Distance, typename Random>
 
     int flip = (children_indices[0].size() > children_indices[1].size());
 
-    m->n_descendants = (S)indices.size();
+    m->n_descendants = is_root ? _n_items : (S)indices.size();
     for (int side = 0; side < 2; side++)
       // run _make_tree for the smallest child first (for cache locality)
       m->children[side^flip] = _make_tree(children_indices[side^flip], false);
diff --git a/test/index_test.py b/test/index_test.py
index 074754ef..351e5f1c 100644
--- a/test/index_test.py
+++ b/test/index_test.py
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@
 import random
 from common import TestCase
 from annoy import AnnoyIndex
-from nose.plugins.skip import SkipTest
 
 
 class IndexTest(TestCase):
@@ -99,7 +98,6 @@ def test_metric_kwarg(self):
     def test_metric_f_kwargs(self):
         i = AnnoyIndex(f=3, metric='euclidean')
 
-    @SkipTest
     def test_item_vector_after_save(self):
         # Issue #279
         a = AnnoyIndex(3)