As you can see, the story does not develop the full chain step by step, but there is a final formula, so I have written out a more complete version of the story at the bottom based on that final formula.
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Once upon a time there was an old man and an old woman who had no children; and one day the old woman went into the fields and picked a basket of beans.
When she had finished, she looked into the basket and said: "I wish all the beans were little children."
Scarcely had she uttered these words when a whole crowd of little children sprang out of the basket and danced about her. Such a family seemed too large for the old woman, so she said: "I wish you would all become beans again."
Immediately the children climbed back into the basket and became beans again, all except one little boy, whom the old woman took home with her.
He was so small that everybody called him little Pepper-Corn, and so good and charming that everybody loved him.
One day the old woman was cooking her soup and little Pepper-Corn climbed up on the kettle and looked in to see what was cooking, but he slipped and fell into the boiling broth and was scalded to death. The old woman did not notice until meal-time that he was missing, and looked in vain for him everywhere to call him to dinner.
At last they sat down to the table without little Pepper-Corn, and when they poured the soup out of the kettle into the dish the body of little Pepper-Corn floated on top.
Then the old man and the old woman began to mourn and cry: "Dear Pepper-Corn is dead, dear Pepper-Corn is dead."
When the dove heard it she tore out her feathers, and cried: "Dear Pepper-Corn is dead. The old man and the old woman are mourning."
When the apple-tree saw that the dove tore out her feathers it asked her why she did so, and when it learned the reason it shook off all its apples.
In like manner, the well near by poured out all its water, the queen's maid broke her pitcher, the queen broke her arm, and the king threw his crown on the ground so that it broke into a thousand pieces; and when his people asked him what the matter was, he answered: "Dear Pepper-Corn is dead, the old man and the old woman mourn, the dove has torn out her feathers, the apple-tree has shaken off all its apples, the well has poured out all its water, the maid has broken her pitcher, the queen has broken her arm, and I, the king, have lost my crown; dear Pepper-Corn is dead."
NOTES
From Hahn's Griechische und Albanesische Märchen, Leipzig, 1864, No. 56, "Pepper-Corn." The story is from Smyrna.
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I have filled out the chain based on the final formula:
Then the old man and the old woman began to mourn and cry.
When the dove asked them what the matter was, they said: "Dear Pepper-Corn is dead, dear Pepper-Corn is dead, and we mourn."
Then the dove tore out her feathers.
When the apple-tree asked the dove what the matter was, she said: "Dear Pepper-Corn is dead, the old man and the old woman mourn, and I have torn out my feathers."
Then the apple-tree shook off all its apples.
When the well asked the apple-tree what the matter was, it answered: "Dear Pepper-Corn is dead, the old man and the old woman mourn, the dove has torn out her feathers, and I have shaken off all my apples."
Then the well poured out all its water.
When the maid asked the well what the matter was, it answered: "Dear Pepper-Corn is dead, the old man and the old woman mourn, the dove has torn out her feathers, the apple-tree has shaken off all its apples, and I have poured out all my water."
Then the queen's maid broke her pitcher.
When the queen asked the maid what the matter was, she answered: "Dear Pepper-Corn is dead, the old man and the old woman mourn, the dove has torn out her feathers, the apple-tree has shaken off all its apples, the well has poured out all its water, and I have broken my pitcher."
Then the queen broke her arm.
When the king asked the queen what the matter was, she answered: "Dear Pepper-Corn is dead, the old man and the old woman mourn, the dove has torn out her feathers, the apple-tree has shaken off all its apples, the well has poured out all its water, the maid has broken her pitcher, and I have broken my arm."
Then the king threw his crown on the ground so that it broke into a thousand pieces.
When his people asked him what the matter was, he answered: "Dear Pepper-Corn is dead, the old man and the old woman mourn, the dove has torn out her feathers, the apple-tree has shaken off all its apples, the well has poured out all its water, the maid has broken her pitcher, the queen has broken her arm, and I, the king, have lost my crown; dear Pepper-Corn is dead."
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