diff --git a/dehydrated b/dehydrated
index 10a5290..fda2072 100755
--- a/dehydrated
+++ b/dehydrated
@@ -426,7 +426,7 @@ http_request() {
 
       # An exclusive hook for the {1}-request error might be useful (e.g., for sending an e-mail to admins)
       if [[ -n "${HOOK}" ]] && [[ "${HOOK_CHAIN}" != "yes" ]]; then
-        errtxt=`cat ${tempcont}`
+        errtxt="$(cat ${tempcont})"
         "${HOOK}" "request_failure" "${statuscode}" "${errtxt}" "${1}"
       fi