when hed found a magnificent wonder of nature and been too restless and excited to sleep , his grandmother could always frighten him into obedience with her legends of the nightbeasts about how a wolf-bitch would watch the house and if a child was being disobedient or had failed to kneel before bed to pray , she would steal in through an open window or unlocked cellar and drag the miscreant away into the night , to feed her own hungry infants .