Such verbs are called intransitive (not crossing over).  Hence

[Sidenote:  Definition.]

205.  An intransitive verb is one which is complete in itself, or which is completed by other words without requiring an object.

[Sidenote:  Study use, not form, of verbs here.]

206.  Many verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, according to their use in the sentence, It can be said, “The boy walked for two hours,” or “The boy walked the horse;” “The rains swelled the river,” or “The river swelled because of the rain;” etc.

The important thing to observe is, many words must be distinguished as transitive or intransitive by use, not by form.

207.  Also verbs are sometimes made transitive by prepositions.  These may be (1) compounded with the verb; or (2) may follow the verb, and be used as an integral part of it:  for example,—­

     Asking her pardon for having withstood her.—­SCOTT.

     I can wish myself no worse than to have it all to undergo a
     second time.—­KINGSLEY.

     A weary gloom in the deep caverns of his eyes, as of a child that
     has outgrown its playthings.—­HAWTHORNE.

     It is amusing to walk up and down the pier and look at the
     countenances passing by.—­B.  TAYLOR.

     He was at once so out of the way, and yet so sensible, that I
     loved, laughed at, and pitied him.—­GOLDSMITH.

     My little nurse told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly
     picked out from her mother.—­SWIFT.

Exercises.

(a) Pick out the transitive and the intransitive verbs in the following:—­

1.  The women and children collected together at a distance.

2.  The path to the fountain led through a grassy savanna.

3.  As soon as I recovered my senses and strength from so sudden a surprise, I started back out of his reach where I stood to view him; he lay quiet whilst I surveyed him.

4.  At first they lay a floor of this kind of tempered mortar on the ground, upon which they deposit a layer of eggs.

5.  I ran my bark on shore at one of their landing places, which was a sort of neck or little dock, from which ascended a sloping path or road up to the edge of the meadow, where their nests were; most of them were deserted, and the great thick whitish eggshells lay broken and scattered upon the ground.

6.  Accordingly I got everything on board, charged my gun, set sail cautiously, along shore.  As I passed by Battle Lagoon, I began to tremble.

7.  I seized my gun, and went cautiously from my camp:  when I had advanced about thirty yards, I halted behind a coppice of orange trees, and soon perceived two very large bears, which had made their way through the water and had landed in the grove, and were advancing toward me.