diff --git a/ice-9/boot-9.scm b/ice-9/boot-9.scm
index efd330815..2ba387843 100644
--- a/ice-9/boot-9.scm
+++ b/ice-9/boot-9.scm
@@ -2745,5 +2745,5 @@
 
 (define-module (guile))
 
-(append! %load-path (cons "." ()))
+(append! %load-path (cons "." '()))
 
diff --git a/ice-9/rdelim.scm b/ice-9/rdelim.scm
index 9d961a0af..732163e5d 100644
--- a/ice-9/rdelim.scm
+++ b/ice-9/rdelim.scm
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@
 	 (handle-delim (if (pair? args)
 			   (car args)
 			   'trim)))
-    (let loop ((substrings ())
+    (let loop ((substrings '())
 	       (total-chars 0)
 	       (buf-size 100))		; doubled each time through.
       (let* ((buf (make-string buf-size))