content: with many tears she told him that he had guessed rightly when he supposed her not to belong to this world - that she had in truth come from the moon , and that her time on earth would soon be over . on the fifteenth day of that very month of august her friends from the moon would come to fetch her , and she would have to return . her parents were both there , but having spent a lifetime on the earth she had forgotten them , and also the moon - world to which she belonged . it made her weep , she said , to think of leaving her kind foster - parents , and the home where she had been happy for so long . when her attendants heard this they were very sad , and could not eat or drink for sadness at the thought that the princess was so soon to leave them . the emperor , as soon as the news was carried to him , sent messengers to the house to find out if the report were true or not . the old bamboo - cutter went out to meet the imperial messengers . the last few days of sorrow had told upon the old man ; he had aged greatly , and looked much more than his seventy years . weeping bitterly , he told them that the report was only too true , but he intended , however , to make prisoners of the envoys from the moon , and to do all he could to prevent the princess from being carried back . the men returned and told his majesty all that had passed . on the fifteenth day of that month the emperor sent a guard of two thousand warriors to watch the house . one thousand stationed themselves on the roof , another thousand kept watch round all the entrances of the house . all were well trained archers , with bows and arrows . the bamboo - cutter and his wife hid princess moonlight in an inner room . 
answer: he was sad his daughter was leaving .
question: why did the old man age greatly and look much more than seventy ?
target: why did the old man age greatly and look much more than seventy ?
references: why did the old man age greatly and look much more than seventy ?