Using Consecutive Method Calls On A Single Object

I don't remember where but I faintly recall one of the oracle docs examples (dealing with GUI basics I think) having something similar to

button.add(lbl).addIcon().addActionListener(al);

but only in the aspect of using .method.method.method

The reason I'm asking is because I want to shorten this

int j = 0;
for(int i = 0; i <= 6; i+=3){
pnl[j+2].add(lbl[i+5]);
pnl[j+2].add(lbl[i+6]);
pnl[j+2].add(drop[j]);
pnl[j+2].add(lbl[i+7]);
pnl[j+2].add(btn[j]);
j++;
}

Into something like this

int j = 0;
for(int i = 0; i <= 6; i+=3){
pnl[j+2].add(lbl[i+5])
.add(lbl[i+6])
.add(drop[j])
.add(lbl[i+7])
.add(btn[j]);
j++;
}

I might be way off though... but I'm just wondering under what circumstances would this be possible

When I try it in Eclipse a little notification appears that says...

"The method add(PopupMenu) in the type Component is not applicable for the arguments (JLabel)"

When I google 'Component' I see it appears to have something to do with Serialization (which I'll need to look into)