diff --git a/src/frontend/parse.c b/src/frontend/parse.c
index f0db7f0bd..df269d3d7 100644
--- a/src/frontend/parse.c
+++ b/src/frontend/parse.c
@@ -330,12 +330,9 @@ PP_mknnode(double number)
     struct pnode *p;
     struct dvec *v;
 
-    p = alloc_pnode();
     v = alloc(struct dvec);
     ZERO(v, struct dvec);
 
-    p->pn_value = v;
-
     /* We don't use printnum because it screws up PP_mkfnode above. We have
      * to be careful to deal properly with node numbers that are quite
      * large...
@@ -351,6 +348,9 @@ PP_mknnode(double number)
     v->v_length = 1;
     v->v_plot = NULL;
     vec_new(v);
+
+    p = alloc_pnode();
+    p->pn_value = v;
     return (p);
 }