Can Mutation.readFields return Mutation instead fo void?

[David Medinets]

I am looking to simplify some. Here is the code I am looking at:

  private Mutation cloneMutation(Mutation m) throws IOException {
    ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
    DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(baos);
    m.write(dos);
    dos.close();

    ByteArrayInputStream bais = new ByteArrayInputStream(baos.toByteArray());
    DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(bais);

    Mutation m = new Mutation();
    m.readFields(dis);
    return m;
  }

The readFields method in Mutation starts like this:

  @Override
  public void readFields(DataInput in) throws IOException {
  ...
  }

It seems harmless to have readFields return 'this' instead fo void.
Any objections?

On a slightly different note, it seems like readFields should actually
be a constructor. Because it's job is to set the row, data, value, and
entries. Just as the other constructors do. Any objections to
converting it to a constructor.