unexpected result from sh script with `date`

[Tigger]

Hello, the following simply sh script is outputting unexpected results.
Any idea why?

--script--

#!/bin/sh

started=`date`

echo "Started at: $started"
echo "Finished  : "`date`
exit

--output--

Started at: Fri Feb  2 22:13:51 EST 2007
Finished  : Fri Feb 2 22:13:51 EST 2007

--problem--

Between 'Feb' and '2', there is two spaces on the 'Started at' line,
however the 'Finished' one only has 1 space.

I know this sounds picky, but I was not expecting this at all.

uname -a
FreeBSD piglet 6.2-STABLE FreeBSD 6.2-STABLE #0: Fri Jan 19 04:13:20 EST
2007     tigger at piglet:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/PIGLET  i386


-Tig