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Just three words carry S second and I third, and unusually for a group this size all of them are in current use.
USING, ASIDE and OSIER are the whole page. The first two are everyday English and the third is a standard term for a willow shoot used in basketry.
A, O and U each open one of the three. The first letter identifies the answer outright, which is as decisive as an opening box ever gets.
S followed by I needs a vowel in front and two letters behind. English mostly places that pair further into a word, in words like BASIN and RESIN, where other letters lead.
What is left are three words that each arrived by a different route, and the page has no cluster or family to speak of.
The fourth and last boxes are equally scattered, with three letters in one and three in the other across three words.
So there is no distribution worth reading. If the pattern is confirmed, work the first letter and you have the answer.
USING, by a wide margin. It is one of the commonest present participles in English and appears far more often than the other two combined.
A willow whose flexible shoots are used for basket weaving, and the shoot itself. The word is standard in basketry and countryside writing.
ASIDE is much commoner, but OSIER tests the O and R, so it covers letters ASIDE does not reach.