diff --git a/lib/memcache.js b/lib/memcache.js
index 8b826ad..078cfd6 100644
--- a/lib/memcache.js
+++ b/lib/memcache.js
@@ -337,7 +337,7 @@ Client.prototype.handle_error = function(buffer){
 	return [null, (line.length + crlf_len), line];
 };
 
-readLine = function(string){
+function readLine(string){
 	var line_len = string.indexOf(crlf);
 	return string.substr(0, line_len);
 };