bash shell variables with spaces

[Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net>]

Does anyone know why the following works:

#!/bin/sh -x
FONT=-jmk-neep\ alt-medium-r-semicondensed-*-*-100-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15
xterm -sl $BUFFER -fn $FONT -geometry 87x96+447+26


But neither of the following work:

#!/bin/sh -x
FONT="-jmk-neep alt-medium-r-semicondensed-*-*-100-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15"
xterm -sl $BUFFER -fn $FONT -geometry 87x96+447+26

#!/bin/sh -x
FONT='-jmk-neep alt-medium-r-semicondensed-*-*-100-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15'
xterm -sl $BUFFER -fn $FONT -geometry 87x96+447+26


???

tia
zen