48879 = 0xBEEF
          ^  ^
 0xBE = MSB  LSB = 0xEF

Memory Address:   0 |  1   |  2   | 3
                    |      |      |
Little Endian:  ... | LSB  | MSB  | ...
                    | 0xEF | 0xBE |
                    |      |      |
Big Endian:     ... | MSB  | LSB  | ...
                    | 0xBE | 0xEF |

# little endian
$ perl -MData::Dump -e 'dd pack "S<", 0xBEEF'
"\xEF\xBE"

# big endian
$ perl -MData::Dump -e 'dd pack "S>", 0xBEEF'
"\xBE\xEF"