pl/pgsql oddity

Hello everyone,

When writing some serverside code I ran into an oddity that I
managed to boil down to this:

-------------------------------------------------------
create or replace function fubar() returns varchar as '
declare
l integer;
begin
l = 38;
if l < 38 then
return ''< 38'';
elseif l >= 38 then
return ''>= 38'';
else
return ''this is not possible'';
end if;
end;'
language 'plpgsql';
-------------------------------------------------------

But I can't understand or solve it. The function always returns
'this is not possible'. Can someone tell me what I'm overlooking?
Thanks!