When we felt D tired, we sat on the benches in one of the alleys, ate cookies and drank

The sentence describes a state of being tired. The options are 'a little', 'less', and 'least'. 'A little' is an adverbial phrase that modifies 'tired' to indicate a moderate degree.

1. Identify the part of speech needed: adverbial phrase modifying 'tired'.

2. Analyze the options: 'a little' (degree), 'less' (comparative degree), 'least' (superlative degree).

3. Choose the phrase indicating a moderate degree: 'a little'.

a little