diff --git a/README.textile b/README.textile
index 4fa4c406..b192b006 100644
--- a/README.textile
+++ b/README.textile
@@ -331,11 +331,26 @@ The argument to <code>highlight</code> is the language identifier. To find the
 appropriate identifier to use for your favorite language, look for the "short
 name" on the "Lexers":http://pygments.org/docs/lexers/ page.
 
+There is a second argument to <code>highlight</code> called 
+<code>linenos</code> that is optional.  Including the <code>linenos</code> 
+argument will force the highlighted code to include line numbers.  For instance,
+the following code block would include line numbers next to each line:
+
+<pre>
+{% highlight ruby linenos %}
+def foo
+  puts 'foo'
+end
+{% endhighlight %}
+</pre>
+
 In order for the highlighting to show up, you'll need to include a
 highlighting stylesheet. For an example stylesheet you can look at
 "syntax.css":http://github.com/mojombo/tpw/tree/master/css/syntax.css. These
 are the same styles as used by GitHub and you are free to use them for your
-own site.
+own site.  If you use linenos, you might want to include an additional CSS class 
+definition for <code>lineno</code> in syntax.css to distinguish the line numbers
+from the highlighted code.
 
 h2. Categories
 
diff --git a/lib/jekyll/tags/highlight.rb b/lib/jekyll/tags/highlight.rb
index cd4121ae..597ceaed 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll/tags/highlight.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll/tags/highlight.rb
@@ -2,10 +2,22 @@ module Jekyll
   
   class HighlightBlock < Liquid::Block
     include Liquid::StandardFilters
+    # we need a language, but the linenos argument is optional.
+    Syntax = /(\w+)\s?(:?linenos)?\s?/
     
-    def initialize(tag_name, lang, tokens)
+    def initialize(tag_name, markup, tokens)
       super
-      @lang = lang.strip
+      if markup =~ Syntax
+        @lang = $1
+        if defined? $2
+          # additional options to pass to Albino.
+          @options = { 'O' => 'linenos=inline' }
+        else
+          @options = {}
+        end
+      else
+        raise SyntaxError.new("Syntax Error in 'highlight' - Valid syntax: highlight <lang> [lineno]")
+      end
     end
   
     def render(context)
@@ -17,7 +29,7 @@ module Jekyll
     end
     
     def render_pygments(context, code)
-      "<notextile>" + Albino.new(code, @lang).to_s + "</notextile>"
+      "<notextile>" + Albino.new(code, @lang).to_s(@options) + "</notextile>"
     end
     
     def render_codehighlighter(context, code)