Bairnlike

[…] and then it was a pleasure to me — yes, a pleasure, Mr. Lowrie, to spend a' my spare time by his bedside, and listen to his bairnlike thoughts about Divine things.

She offered him sixpence for a letter, any letter he liked, but of course he refused it. Then she prigged with him just to let her hold one in her hands, for said she, bairnlike, “I used to get one every day.”

His green eyes sparkled with an exuberance that looked almost bairnlike.

Thomas turned thirteen. […] Yet he had not thrown off the trappings of a child. He was small and bairnlike, and his skin was smooth. His voice, when he sang the psalms, was as faint and feeble as a boy of nine's, rising sweet and tremulous.