diff --git a/racket/src/cify/generate.rkt b/racket/src/cify/generate.rkt
index d274308c2a..a154fbffe3 100644
--- a/racket/src/cify/generate.rkt
+++ b/racket/src/cify/generate.rkt
@@ -977,6 +977,15 @@
        (cond
          [(always-fixnum? e)
           (format "scheme_make_integer(~a)" e)]
+         [(exact-integer? e)
+          (cond
+            [(and (< e (expt 2 63))
+                  (>= e (- (expt 2 63))))
+             (format "scheme_make_integer_value_from_long_halves(~aL, ~aL)"
+                     (bitwise-and e (sub1 (expt 2 32)))
+                     (arithmetic-shift e -32))]
+            [else
+             (error 'generate-quite "number is too large: ~e" e)])]
          [(eqv? e +inf.0) "scheme_inf_object"]
          [(eqv? e -inf.0) "scheme_minus_inf_object"]
          [(eqv? e +nan.0) "scheme_nan_object"]
diff --git a/racket/src/racket/src/startup-glue.inc b/racket/src/racket/src/startup-glue.inc
index afddf83585..ded7f4cd22 100644
--- a/racket/src/racket/src/startup-glue.inc
+++ b/racket/src/racket/src/startup-glue.inc
@@ -482,7 +482,7 @@ static MZ_INLINE Scheme_Object *c_string_ref(Scheme_Object *v, Scheme_Object *i)
 
 static MZ_INLINE Scheme_Object *c_bytes_ref(Scheme_Object *v, Scheme_Object *i)
 {
-  int c = SCHEME_BYTE_STR_VAL(v)[SCHEME_INT_VAL(i)];
+  int c = ((unsigned char *)SCHEME_BYTE_STR_VAL(v))[SCHEME_INT_VAL(i)];
   return scheme_make_integer(c);
 }