'Return the contents of this container as a dictionary.'

def as_dict(self, base=None):

    ret = {}
    keys = self.keys(base)
    if (base is None):
        base = ''
    else:
        base = base.rstrip('/')
    for key in keys:
        try:
            ret[key] = self[((base + '/') + key).strip('/')]
        except KeyError:
            continue
    return ret
