Cant view my mail automatically?

Sorry if this has been approached before but.... When I open my mail from the Dock the mail program opens with a list of all my mails but i no longer have the large panel at the bottom of the mail with the hi-lighted mail open for me to read. I now have to Double-click each mail to open it in a seperate window. *** is going on? I have never had this problem before. On the left border I only have showing Inbox, Sent and Trash. I tried the Mail help which said something about "On My Mac" folder but couldn't find it or understand what I was suppose to do with it if I did. I know guys that this isn't the end of the world but it is pretty pi**ing off. Does anyone have a clue about this? PS, G4 running OS X 10.4.11
Many thanks in advance.
Reaperman

You probably just collapsed the message viewing pane at some point. Towards the bottom of your Mail window there should be a very small circle. Click and hold, then drag upwards to expand the message pane again.

Hi miles, Nope.... no small circle at bottom of window. All I have on screen is a list of all my mail and the obligatory, Inbox, Sent and Trash. At the bottom I have is + sign, small "cog" which only opens a window with New Mail Box, Smart Mail Box options etc. The List view of my mails is fine but I used to open with the highlighted mail automatically open in a window underneath the list of mail. ie The message and any attachments, photos etc. Then any subsequent mail I highlighted would automatically open in the window and become the highlighted mail. I'm probably making this sound more complicated than it is.

Bottom line is this..... I have to double click any mail in the list to open it, before just clicking on it would automatically show the mail in the botton panel attachments and all.

Can anyone help please?

Reaperman

Miles.... I am a complete p**tt. Just sorted it.... doh! Thanks again
Reaperman