diff --git a/libs/pbd/xml++.cc b/libs/pbd/xml++.cc
index 1b10be89f5..3a0af1621d 100644
--- a/libs/pbd/xml++.cc
+++ b/libs/pbd/xml++.cc
@@ -221,15 +221,12 @@ XMLNode::child (const char *name) const
 {
 	/* returns first child matching name */
 
-	static XMLNodeList retval;
 	XMLNodeConstIterator cur;
 	
 	if (name == 0) {
 		return 0;
 	}
 	    
-	retval.erase(retval.begin(), retval.end());
-	
 	for (cur = _children.begin(); cur != _children.end(); ++cur) {
 		if ((*cur)->name() == name) {
 			return *cur;